Our speaker will be Tobin Hanspal (Vienna University of Economics and Business & VGSF).

He will give a talk on “Educating Investors about Dividends” (joint with Andreas Hackethal and Samuel M. Hartzmark).

Abstract: We educate a sample of investors about the benefits of dividend reinvestment and the costs associated with misperceiving dividends as additional, free income. The intervention causes investors to upward adjust planned dividend reinvestment. In the field, these investors become more likely to reinvest their earned dividends into the same asset or into passive funds, relative to previously received dividends and a placebo treatment sample. Investors who stated that they learned the most from the intervention updated their plans and field behavior by the largest extent. Our study documents that simple, targeted, and focused educational interventions can affect downstream investment behavior.

The talk will take place on June 20, 2022 hybrid in room D3.0.218 at 12.30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

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