How Much Is Investor Autonomy Worth?

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Finance
Year: 2002
Volume: 57
Issue: 4
Pages: 1593-1616

Authors (2)

Shlomo Benartzi (not in RePEc) Richard H. Thaler (University of Chicago)

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

There is a worldwide trend towards defined contribution savings plans, where investors are often able to select their own portfolios. How much is this freedom of choice worth? We present retirement investors with information about the distribution of outcomes they could expect to obtain from the portfolios they picked for themselves, and the same information for the median portfolio selected by their peers. A majority of our survey participants actually prefer the median portfolio to the one they picked for themselves. We investigate various explanations for these findings and offer some evidence that the results are partly attributable to the fact that investors do not have well‐defined preferences.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:bla:jfinan:v:57:y:2002:i:4:p:1593-1616
Journal Field
Finance
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-29