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Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Inflation and Individual Investors' Behavior: Evidence from the German Hyperinflation
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Fabio Braggion
  • Felix Von Meyerinck
  • Nic Schaub
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Review of Financial Studies
Publisher Oxford University Press
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 0893-9454
Volume 36
Number 12
Page Range 5012 - 5045
Date 2023
Abstract Text We analyze how individual investors respond to inflation. We introduce a unique dataset containing information on local inflation and security portfolios of more than 2,000 clients of a German bank between 1920 and 1924, covering the German hyperinflation. We find that individual investors buy less (sell more) stocks when facing higher local inflation. This effect is more pronounced for less sophisticated investors. Moreover, we document a positive relation between local inflation and forgone returns following stock sales. Our findings are consistent with individual investors suffering from money illusion. Alternative explanations such as consumption needs are unlikely to drive our results.
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Digital Object Identifier 10.1093/rfs/hhad047
Other Identification Number merlin-id:23650
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Additional Information Bereits als Working Paper in University of St.Gallen - School of Finance Research Paper erschienen: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3802488.