Peer Advice on Financial Decisions: A case of the blind leading the blind?

Sandro Ambuehl, B. Douglas Bernheim, Fulya Ersoy and Donna Harris
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Sandro Ambühl

No 25034, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We investigate the impact of peer interaction on the quality of financial decision making in a laboratory experiment. Face-to-face communication with a randomly assigned peer significantly improves the quality of subsequent private decisions even though simple mimicry would have the opposite effect. We present evidence that the mechanism involves general conceptual learning (because the benefits of communication extend to previously unseen tasks), and that the most effective learning relationships are horizontal rather than vertical (because people with weak skills benefit most when their partners also have weak skills). The benefits of demonstrably effective financial education do not propagate to peers.

JEL-codes: D03 D12 D69 G02 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-fle
Note: PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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