IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-05492345.html

Human-Robot Interactions in Investment Decisions

Author

Listed:
  • Milo Bianchi

    (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, TSM - Toulouse School of Management Research - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - TSM - Toulouse School of Management - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse)

  • Marie Brière

    (AMUNDI Asset Management, Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres)

Abstract

We study the introduction of robo-advising on a large set of Employee Saving Plans. Differently from many services that fully automate portfolio decisions, our robo-advisor proposes investment and rebalancing strategies, leaving investors free to follow or ignore them. The resulting human-robot interactions occur both at the time of the subscription and over time, as the robot sends alerts when the investor's portfolio gets too far from the target allocation. We show that the robo-service is associated with an increase in investors' attention and trading activities. Following the robot's alerts, investors change their rebalancing behaviors so as to stay closer to their target allocation, which results in larger portfolio returns. Counterfactual returns induced by automatic rebalancing by the robot would be only slightly higher, suggesting that on average the financial cost of letting investors retain control is not large.

Suggested Citation

  • Milo Bianchi & Marie Brière, 2026. "Human-Robot Interactions in Investment Decisions," Post-Print hal-05492345, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05492345
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2022.03886
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05492345v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-05492345v1/document
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.2022.03886?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dean Karlan & Margaret McConnell & Sendhil Mullainathan & Jonathan Zinman, 2016. "Getting to the Top of Mind: How Reminders Increase Saving," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(12), pages 3393-3411, December.
    2. Erik Brynjolfsson, 2022. "The Turing Trap: The Promise & Peril of Human-Like Artificial Intelligence," Papers 2201.04200, arXiv.org.
    3. Laurent E. Calvet & John Y. Campbell & Paolo Sodini, 2009. "Fight or Flight? Portfolio Rebalancing by Individual Investors," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(1), pages 301-348.
    4. Berk, Jonathan B. & van Binsbergen, Jules H., 2015. "Measuring skill in the mutual fund industry," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 1-20.
    5. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2008. "Planning and Financial Literacy: How Do Women Fare?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 413-417, May.
    6. Antonio Gargano & Alberto G Rossi, 2018. "Does It Pay to Pay Attention?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(12), pages 4595-4649.
    7. Ruyi Ge & Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng & Xuan Tian & Li Liao, 2021. "Human–Robot Interaction: When Investors Adjust the Usage of Robo-Advisors in Peer-to-Peer Lending," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(3), pages 774-785, September.
    8. Milo Bianchi, 2018. "Financial Literacy and Portfolio Dynamics," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(2), pages 831-859, April.
    9. William N. Goetzmann & Alok Kumar, 2008. "Equity Portfolio Diversification," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 12(3), pages 433-463.
    10. Paweł Niszczota & Dániel Kaszás, 2020. "Robo-investment aversion," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-19, September.
    11. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2001. "Boys will be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, and Common Stock Investment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 261-292.
    12. Berkeley J. Dietvorst & Joseph P. Simmons & Cade Massey, 2018. "Overcoming Algorithm Aversion: People Will Use Imperfect Algorithms If They Can (Even Slightly) Modify Them," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(3), pages 1155-1170, March.
    13. Francesco D'Acunto & Alberto G. Rossi, 2023. "Robo-Advice: Transforming Households into Rational Economic Agents," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 15(1), pages 543-563, November.
    14. Greenwood, Robin & Nagel, Stefan, 2009. "Inexperienced investors and bubbles," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 239-258, August.
    15. Gonzalo Maturana & Jordan Nickerson, 2019. "Teachers Teaching Teachers: The Role of Workplace Peer Effects in Financial Decisions," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(10), pages 3920-3957.
    16. Paige Ouimet & Geoffrey Tate, 2020. "Learning from Coworkers: Peer Effects on Individual Investment Decisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(1), pages 133-172, February.
    17. Jon Kleinberg & Himabindu Lakkaraju & Jure Leskovec & Jens Ludwig & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2018. "Human Decisions and Machine Predictions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(1), pages 237-293.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bernd Irlenbusch, 2026. "Human Trust in AI: Evidence from Experimental Economics," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 417, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Milo Bianchi & Marie Brière, 2026. "Human-Robot Interactions in Investment Decisions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 72(1), pages 14-31, January.
    2. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    3. Buss, Adrian & Vilkov, Grigory & Uppal, Raman, 2020. "Investor Sophistication and Portfolio Dynamics," CEPR Discussion Papers 15116, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    4. Milo Bianchi, 2018. "Financial Literacy and Portfolio Dynamics," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(2), pages 831-859, April.
    5. Eaton, Gregory W. & Green, T. Clifton & Roseman, Brian S. & Wu, Yanbin, 2022. "Retail trader sophistication and stock market quality: Evidence from brokerage outages," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 502-528.
    6. D’Hondt, Catherine & De Winne, Rudy & Merli, Maxime, 2021. "Do retail investors bite off more than they can chew? A close look at their return objectives," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 879-902.
    7. Kevin Bauer & Andrej Gill, 2024. "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Algorithmic Assessments, Transparency, and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(1), pages 226-248, March.
    8. Shin, Su Hyun & Kim, Kyoung Tae & Seay, Martin, 2020. "Sources of information and portfolio allocation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    9. Anna (Ania) Zalewska, 2022. "Saving with Group or Individual Personal Pension Schemes: How Much Difference Does It Make?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(7), pages 5384-5402, July.
    10. Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Dieter Saelens, 2024. "Nonparametric analysis of financial portfolio performance," Working Papers ECARES 2024-08, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    11. Abreu, Margarida & Mendes, Victor, 2018. "The investor in structured retail products: Advice driven or gambling oriented?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 1-9.
    12. Claudia Curi & Andreas Dibiasi & Matteo Ploner & Mirco Tonin, 2026. "Gender Differences in Pension Investment: The Role of Biased Advice," CESifo Working Paper Series 12569, CESifo.
    13. Margarida Abreu & Victor Mendes, 2018. "Do Individual Investors Trade Differently in Different Markets?," Working Papers REM 2018/26, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    14. Merkle, Christoph & Weber, Martin, 2014. "Do investors put their money where their mouth is? Stock market expectations and investing behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 372-386.
    15. Claudio Daminato & Massimo Filippini & Fabio Haufler, 2024. "Digitalization and Retirement Contribution Behavior: Evidence from Administrative Data," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 37(8), pages 2510-2549.
    16. Justin Birru & Fernando Chague & Rodrigo De-Losso & Bruno Giovannetti, 2024. "Attention and Biases: Evidence from Tax-Inattentive Investors," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 70(10), pages 7101-7119, October.
    17. Filiz, Ibrahim & Judek, Jan René & Lorenz, Marco & Spiwoks, Markus, 2021. "Reducing algorithm aversion through experience," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    18. Duraj, Kamila & Grunow, Daniela & Chaliasos, Michael & Laudenbach, Christine & Siegel, Stephan, 2024. "Rethinking the stock market participation puzzle: A qualitative approach," IMFS Working Paper Series 210, Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS).
    19. Ammann, Manuel & Cochardt, Alexander Elmar & Straumann, Simon & Weigert, Florian, 2022. "Back to the roots: Ancestral origin and mutual fund manager portfolio choice," CFR Working Papers 22-04, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    20. Pan, Xuefeng & Wu, Weixing & Zhang, Xuyang, 2020. "Is financial advice a cure-all or the icing on the cake for financial literacy? Evidence from financial market participation in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05492345. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.