Cognition ability, financial advice seeking, and investment performance: New evidence from China

Ziying Yang, Jie Gao and Du Yu

International Review of Finance, 2024, vol. 24, issue 1, 53-82

Abstract: This paper examines how cognitive ability affects households' demand for financial advice and whether households with financial advisors reap better investment returns in China. Using data from the nationally representative China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) and China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we find that math ability (i.e., one domain of cognitive ability) has a significant and negative effect on households' propensity to hire financial advisors, whereas the impact of verbal ability (i.e., another domain of cognitive ability) on seeking financial advice is insignificant. The analysis also suggests that the influence of cognitive limitation is larger for less educated and financially literate households. We conduct a regression discontinuity based on the Huai River policy, supporting the causal influence of cognitive ability on financial advice seeking. Furthermore, we find no evidence that financial advice improves investors' investment performance.

Date: 2024
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