Financial education and digital asset management : what's in the black box?

Kurzfassung/Abstract

We study the effect of a financial education intervention on the propensity to delegate financial decision-making to a digital asset management tool (robo-advisor). Our results suggest that investors are more inclined to delegate financial decision-making when they receive detailed information on the investment principles underlying the robo-advisory algorithm. The intervention also affects investors’ independent investment behavior as it increases diversification and revealed risk aversion, while it decreases self-reported risk aversion. Our findings imply that robo-advisors benefit from providing financial education to prospective investors and that financial education may indirectly affect investment outcomes by encouraging the use of financial advice.