Submitted by dd on
TitleOverconfidence in Investment Decisions - An Experimental Approach
Publication TypeManuscript
Year of Publication2001
AuthorsDittrich, Dennis A. V., Werner Gueth, and Boris Maciejovsky
Collection TitlePapers on Strategic Interaction
Date Published12/2001
Library/ArchiveMax Planck Institute of Economics
Type of WorkWorking Paper
Abstract

By experimentally inducing risk aversion, overconfidence in an investment setting is investigated, comparing the evaluation of actual investment decisions with alternative choices. After selecting their own investment, subjects confront three alternative investment choices, including the optimal one, and are asked about their willingness to pay and to substitute their own for alternative choices. Overconfidence is defined as the persistent overevaluation of the own investment decision. Results indicate that overconfidence increases (i) with the absolute deviation from optimal choices, (ii) with task complexity involving the number of risky assets, and (iii) decreases with individual perceived uncertainty.

URLftp://papers.econ.mpg.de/esi/discussionpapers/2001-03.pdf
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