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Asymmetric learning from financial information

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  • Kuhnen, Camelia M.

Abstract

The goal of this study is to ask whether investors learn differently from gains (positive news) versus losses (negative news), whether learning performance is better or worse when people are actively investing in a security or passively observing the security’s payoffs, and whether there are personal characteristics that correlate with learning performance. The experimental evidence documented here indicates that the ability to learn from financial information is on average worse in the loss domain, in particular if the investor has personally experienced the prior outcomes of the financial asset considered. Within individual, learning from gains versus losses, or during active versus passive involvement, are not perfectly correlated, indicating that there exists heterogeneity across people with respect to the type of financial information or context to which they are the most sensitive. Learning performance is determined by acquired financial expertise as well as by genetic factors related to memory and cognitive control.

Suggested Citation

  • Kuhnen, Camelia M., 2012. "Asymmetric learning from financial information," MPRA Paper 39412, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:39412
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    financial decision making; learning; gains; losses; genes; COMT; neuroeconomics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior

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