Behavioral Finance and the Investment Decision-Making Process in the Brazilian Financial Market

24 Pages Posted: 31 Jan 2007

See all articles by Roberto Decourt

Roberto Decourt

University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS) - Unisinos Business School

Andre Accorsi

Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM)

José Madeira Neto

Dowling College

Date Written: January 2007

Abstract

This article shows investment simulations with Brazilian MBA students and physicians, indicating that the process of making investment decisions is based on the "Behavioral Economics" theory which uses the fundamental aspects of the Prospect Theory developed by Kahneman and Tversky (1979). The following effects have been tested and identified using an investment simulator over the Internet. 1) endowment, that makes the participants not to sell the received assets, no matter if better investment options are available; 2) the disposition effect, that refers to the pattern that people avoid realizing paper losses and seek to realize gains; 3) fear of regret, that makes the participant invest in rejected assets in the past that had good valorization and 4) framing, that modifies the investment decision depending on the perspective given to the problem. The conclusions of this study were: 1) the endowment was effective for physicians; 2) the disposition did not affect the participants; 3) the fear of regret influenced the decisions of MBA students and 4) the framing modified the investment decision of the physicians and MBA students.

Keywords: Behavioral finance, money markets, investments, decision-making, psychology, Brazil

JEL Classification: C91

Suggested Citation

Decourt, Roberto and Accorsi, Andre and Madeira Neto, José, Behavioral Finance and the Investment Decision-Making Process in the Brazilian Financial Market (January 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=960350 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.960350

Roberto Decourt (Contact Author)

University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS) - Unisinos Business School ( email )

Av. Unisinos 950, Bairro Cristo Rei
Escola de Gestão e Negócios, Sala E07 - 404C
São Leopoldo, São Leopoldo - RS 93.022-000
Brazil

Andre Accorsi

Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM) ( email )

Rua Alvaro Alvim, 123
Valinhos, São Paulo
Brazil

José Madeira Neto

Dowling College ( email )

Oakdale, NY 11769
United States