IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/bubdp1/201123.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Home-field advantage or a matter of ambiguity aversion? Local bias among German individual investors

Author

Listed:
  • Baltzer, Markus
  • Stolper, Oscar
  • Walter, Andreas

Abstract

We analyze the effect of geographic proximity on individual investors' portfolio choice. Using a unique data set which covers the common stockholdings of private households at regional banks in Germany, we document strong and consistent overinvestment in geographically close companies. Our results conclusively reject the presence of an informational advantage ('home-field advantage') of local over non-local investors. Instead, households' preference for local equity turns out to be familiarity-driven. We conclude that individual investors' local bias is induced by ambiguity aversion in the portfolio selection process rather than a trading strategy based on superior information about local companies.

Suggested Citation

  • Baltzer, Markus & Stolper, Oscar & Walter, Andreas, 2011. "Home-field advantage or a matter of ambiguity aversion? Local bias among German individual investors," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 2011,23, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bubdp1:201123
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/52130/1/671532650.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zoran Ivković & Scott Weisbenner, 2005. "Local Does as Local Is: Information Content of the Geography of Individual Investors' Common Stock Investments," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 267-306, February.
    2. Daniel Dorn & Gur Huberman, 2005. "Talk and Action: What Individual Investors Say and What They Do," Review of Finance, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 437-481, December.
    3. Trond M. Døskeland & Hans K. Hvide, 2011. "Do Individual Investors Have Asymmetric Information Based on Work Experience?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(3), pages 1011-1041, June.
    4. Jaffe, Jeffrey F, 1974. "Special Information and Insider Trading," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(3), pages 410-428, July.
    5. Daniel Dorn & Gur Huberman & Paul Sengmueller, 2008. "Correlated Trading and Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(2), pages 885-920, April.
    6. Hong, Harrison & Kubik, Jeffrey D. & Stein, Jeremy C., 2008. "The only game in town: Stock-price consequences of local bias," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 20-37, October.
    7. Craig R. Fox & Amos Tversky, 1995. "Ambiguity Aversion and Comparative Ignorance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 585-603.
    8. Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh & Laura Veldkamp, 2009. "Information Immobility and the Home Bias Puzzle," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(3), pages 1187-1215, June.
    9. William N. Goetzmann & Alok Kumar, 2008. "Equity Portfolio Diversification," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 12(3), pages 433-463.
    10. H. Henry Cao & Bing Han & David Hirshleifer & Harold H. Zhang, 2011. "Fear of the Unknown: Familiarity and Economic Decisions," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 15(1), pages 173-206.
    11. Huberman, Gur, 2001. "Familiarity Breeds Investment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(3), pages 659-680.
    12. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2000. "Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 773-806, April.
    13. Schwert, G William, 1990. "Stock Volatility and the Crash of '87," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 3(1), pages 77-102.
    14. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2003. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    15. Harald Hau, 2001. "Location Matters: An Examination of Trading Profits," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1959-1983, October.
    16. Lucy Ackert & Bryan Church & James Tompkins & Ping Zhang, 2005. "What’s in a Name? An Experimental Examination of Investment Behavior," Review of Finance, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 281-304, June.
    17. Massimo Massa & Andrei Simonov, 2006. "Hedging, Familiarity and Portfolio Choice," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 633-685.
    18. Loughran, Tim & Schultz, Paul, 2005. "Liquidity: Urban versus rural firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 341-374, November.
    19. Shlomo Benartzi, 2001. "Excessive Extrapolation and the Allocation of 401(k) Accounts to Company Stock," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1747-1764, October.
    20. Joshua D. Coval & Tobias J. Moskowitz, 1999. "Home Bias at Home: Local Equity Preference in Domestic Portfolios," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(6), pages 2045-2073, December.
    21. Joshua D. Coval & Tobias J. Moskowitz, 2001. "The Geography of Investment: Informed Trading and Asset Prices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(4), pages 811-841, August.
    22. Mark Grinblatt & Matti Keloharju, 2001. "How Distance, Language, and Culture Influence Stockholdings and Trades," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 1053-1073, June.
    23. John D. Lyon & Brad M. Barber & Chih‐Ling Tsai, 1999. "Improved Methods for Tests of Long‐Run Abnormal Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(1), pages 165-201, February.
    24. Mark S. Seasholes & Ning Zhu, 2010. "Individual Investors and Local Bias," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(5), pages 1987-2010, October.
    25. Mandelker, Gershon, 1974. "Risk and return: The case of merging firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(4), pages 303-335, December.
    26. Heath, Chip & Tversky, Amos, 1991. "Preference and Belief: Ambiguity and Competence in Choice under Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 5-28, January.
    27. Terrance Odean, 1999. "Do Investors Trade Too Much?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1279-1298, December.
    28. Grinblatt, Mark & Keloharju, Matti, 2000. "The investment behavior and performance of various investor types: a study of Finland's unique data set," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 43-67, January.
    29. Conrad, Alexander & Neuberger, Doris & Schneider-Reißig, Maria, 2008. "Geographic and demographic Bank outreach: Evidence from Germany's three-pillar banking system," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 98, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    30. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2003. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 2.
    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. Koen Schoors & Maria Semenova & Andrey Zubanov, 2016. "Depositor Discipline in Russian Regions: Flight to Familiarity or Trust in Local Authorities?," HSE Working papers WP BRP 58/FE/2016, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    2. Tim Schmitz & Ingo Hoffmann, 2020. "Re-evaluating cryptocurrencies' contribution to portfolio diversification -- A portfolio analysis with special focus on German investors," Papers 2006.06237, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2020.
    3. Dehua Shen & Xiao Li & Andrea Teglio & Wei Zhang, 2016. "The impact of information-based familiarity on the stock market," Working Papers 2016/08, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    4. Andreas Oehler & Matthias Horn, 2021. "Behavioural portfolio theory revisited: lessons learned from the field," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(S1), pages 1743-1774, April.
    5. Schoors, Koen & Semenova, Maria & Zubanov, Andrey, 2019. "Depositor discipline during crisis: Flight to familiarity or trust in local authorities?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 25-39.
    6. Lars Hornuf & Matthias Neuenkirch, 2017. "Pricing shares in equity crowdfunding," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 795-811, April.
    7. repec:zbw:bofitp:2017_001 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Baltzer, Markus & Stolper, Oscar & Walter, Andreas, 2013. "Is local bias a cross-border phenomenon? Evidence from individual investors’ international asset allocation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2823-2835.
    9. Koen Schoors & Maria Semenova & Andrey Zubanov, 2016. "Depositor Discipline in Russian Regions: Flight to Familiarity or Trust in Local Authorities?," HSE Working papers WP BRP 58/FE/2016, National Research University Higher School of Economics.

    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. Guiso, Luigi & Sodini, Paolo, 2013. "Household Finance: An Emerging Field," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1397-1532, Elsevier.
    2. Eduard Gaar & David Scherer & Dirk Schiereck, 2022. "The home bias and the local bias: A survey," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 72(1), pages 21-57, February.
    3. Barber, Brad M. & Odean, Terrance, 2013. "The Behavior of Individual Investors," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1533-1570, Elsevier.
    4. Nicolas Coeurdacier & Hélène Rey, 2013. "Home Bias in Open Economy Financial Macroeconomics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 63-115, March.
    5. García, Diego & Norli, Øyvind, 2012. "Geographic dispersion and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(3), pages 547-565.
    6. John R. Graham & Campbell R. Harvey & Hai Huang, 2009. "Investor Competence, Trading Frequency, and Home Bias," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(7), pages 1094-1106, July.
    7. Phelim Boyle & Lorenzo Garlappi & Raman Uppal & Tan Wang, 2012. "Keynes Meets Markowitz: The Trade-Off Between Familiarity and Diversification," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 253-272, February.
    8. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g81p7j6b6 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g81p7j6b6 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g81p7j6b6 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Bruno Solnik & Luo Zuo, 2012. "A Global Equilibrium Asset Pricing Model with Home Preference," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 273-292, February.
    12. Dlugosch, Dennis & Horn, Kristian & Wang, Mei, 2023. "New experimental evidence on the relationship between home bias, ambiguity aversion and familiarity heuristics," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 125.
    13. Li, Mingsheng & Zhao, Xin, 2016. "Neighborhood effect on stock price comovement," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-22.
    14. Baltzer, Markus & Stolper, Oscar & Walter, Andreas, 2013. "Is local bias a cross-border phenomenon? Evidence from individual investors’ international asset allocation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2823-2835.
    15. John Y. Campbell, 2006. "Household Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1553-1604, August.
    16. Branikas, Ioannis & Hong, Harrison & Xu, Jiangmin, 2020. "Location choice, portfolio choice," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 74-94.
    17. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g81p7j6b6 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Itzhak Venezia, 2018. "Lecture Notes in Behavioral Finance," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 10751, August.
    19. Bo Becker & Zoran Ivković & Scott Weisbenner, 2011. "Local Dividend Clienteles," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 655-683, April.
    20. Green, T. Clifton & Jame, Russell, 2013. "Company name fluency, investor recognition, and firm value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 813-834.
    21. Anil Mishra, 2011. "Australia’s equity home bias and real exchange rate volatility," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 223-244, August.
    22. Hoechle, Daniel & Schmid, Markus & Zimmermann, Heinz, 2012. "Decomposing Performance," Working Papers on Finance 1216, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance, revised Nov 2015.
    23. Martijn Boermans & Ian Cooper & Piet Sercu & Rosanne Vanpée, 2022. "Foreign bias in equity portfolios: Informational advantage or familiarity bias?," Working Papers 742, DNB.
    24. Li, Donghui & Liao, Li & Luo, Yuanhang & Zhang, Xueyong, 2014. "Firm headquarters location, ownership structure, and stock return co-movements," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 158-172.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    local bias; portfolio diversification; household finance; investor behaviour; ambiguity aversion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

    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:zbw:bubdp1:201123. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dbbgvde.html .

    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.