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Investor Behaviour in the Age of Fintech: Crowdfunding, Copy Trading and Robo-Advisors

金融科技时代的投资者行为：众筹、复制交易和机器人顾问

基本信息

批准号：
ES/T015357/1
负责人：
Simon Weidenholzer
金额：
$ 44.53万
依托单位：
University of Essex
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2020 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FT015357%2F1
关键词：
Investor Behaviour Age Fintech Crowdfunding

项目摘要

Fintech (financial technology) describes a fairly recent phenomenon, where technological innovation is used to provide or improve financial services such as banking, retail investment, or borrowing. While Fintech can make the provision of financial services more efficient than before, it can also allow for new possibilities that were infeasible or too costly before. This project will focus on three forms of Fintech: crowdfunding, social trading, and robo-advising. Crowdfunding is the provision of funds by a large number of individuals to other individuals, groups, organisations or firms via the internet, typically by providing loans or selling shares of a business. For the past few years, the volume of crowdfunding grew by more than 100% annually (Massolution 2015). In the start-up sector, it is already seen by some as the most important external funding source. What is puzzling is that crowdfunding is a new investment opportunity, but arguably conventional investments are at least as good in terms of risk and return profile. For example, stocks tend to provide a higher expected return, government bonds can be cashed in more easily, and bank deposits are safer. Yet the crowdfunding growth rates indicate that it gives savers something that they do not get from conventional investments. Projects 1 and 2 will investigate the motivations of crowdfunders: Why do they invest in crowdfunding, and what in their view is the advantage over conventional investments? Project 2 investigates a specific motivation, whether having a positive social or environmental impact by crowdfunding projects plays a role, or whether only financial risk and return considerations play a role as suggested by conventional finance theory.Another focus of our research projects is to understand how decisions and outcomes differ because of these Fintech innovations; project 3 investigates whether investors suffer from a consumption-preference investment bias, where they invest in firms whose products they like but not necessarily those whose products are liked by the majority of consumers. If this is the case, then crowdfunding, where many investors decide independently which firms to fund, might provide a better capital allocation than e.g. venture capital financing, where only a few large investors decide. Hence, crowdfunding might democratise start-up funding decisions and improve welfare because investments go into the right firms, but there is no empirical evidence about this hypothesis yet.Projects 4 and 5 investigate copy trading, where some investors can copy the trades of other (historically successful) traders. Previous research has shown that copy trading leads to more risky investment choices, but it is not clear why people choose to copy others; project 4 addresses this question. Project 5 asks whether the knowledge of being copied, or the rewards given for it, changes the investment behaviour of those being copied, and why. If this is the case, then copy trading might reduce welfare among copy traders because they risk their savings to a greater degree than they otherwise would. Thus, our research has implications for regulators who want to protect consumers, and for trading platforms who might want to protect their customers in order to retain them.Finally, project 6 investigates robo-advising, which are algorithms that recommend investments and portfolios based on investor preferences. Historically, a similar purpose was served by wealth managers, who, however, would only offer their services to relatively wealthy clients, whereas robo-advisers can reduce costs and are therefore more easily accessible. The main questions are which characteristics of robo-advisers lead to them being accepted/adopted, and which kind of retail investors adopt them. A major welfare question is whether robo-advising leads to better investment decisions (e.g., more diversification, fewer investment biases).

金融科技（Fintech）描述了一种相当新的现象，即技术创新被用来提供或改善金融服务，如银行、零售投资或借贷。虽然金融科技可以使金融服务的提供比以前更有效率，但它也可以允许以前不可行的或过于昂贵的新可能性。该项目将重点关注三种形式的金融科技：众筹、社交交易和机器人咨询。众筹是指大量个人通过互联网向其他个人、团体、组织或公司提供资金，通常是通过提供贷款或出售企业股份。在过去的几年里，众筹的数量以每年100%以上的速度增长（Massolution 2015）。在初创企业领域，中国已被一些人视为最重要的外部资金来源。令人困惑的是，众筹是一种新的投资机会，但传统投资至少在风险和回报方面同样出色。例如，股票往往提供更高的预期回报，政府债券更容易兑现，银行存款更安全。然而，众筹的增长率表明，它给了储户一些他们从传统投资中得不到的东西。项目1和项目2将调查众筹者的动机：他们为什么投资众筹，在他们看来众筹比传统投资有什么优势？项目2调查了一个具体的动机，是否通过众筹项目产生积极的社会或环境影响起作用，或者是否像传统金融理论所建议的那样只有财务风险和回报考虑起作用。我们研究项目的另一个重点是了解这些金融科技创新对决策和结果的影响；项目3调查投资者是否遭受消费偏好投资偏见，即他们投资于他们喜欢的产品的公司，而不一定是那些产品被大多数消费者喜欢的公司。如果是这样的话，那么众筹（由许多投资者独立决定资助哪些公司）可能比风险投资融资（只有少数大投资者决定）提供更好的资本配置。因此，众筹可能会使创业融资决策民主化，并改善福利，因为投资会流向正确的公司，但目前还没有关于这一假设的实证证据。项目4和项目5调查复制交易，一些投资者可以复制其他（历史上成功的）交易者的交易。先前的研究表明，复制交易导致风险更大的投资选择，但尚不清楚人们为什么选择复制他人；项目4解决了这个问题。项目5询问被复制的知识，或由此获得的奖励，是否改变了被复制者的投资行为，以及为什么。如果是这样的话，那么复制交易可能会降低复制交易者的福利，因为他们的储蓄风险比其他情况下更大。因此，我们的研究对想要保护消费者的监管机构和想要保护客户以留住客户的交易平台都有影响。最后，项目6研究了机器人咨询，这是一种基于投资者偏好推荐投资和投资组合的算法。从历史上看，财富管理公司也有类似的目的，但他们只会向相对富裕的客户提供服务，而机器人顾问可以降低成本，因此更容易获得。主要问题是，机器人顾问的哪些特征会导致它们被接受/采用，以及哪类散户投资者会接受它们。一个主要的福利问题是，机器人咨询是否会带来更好的投资决策（例如，更多的多样化，更少的投资偏见）。