Time: Monday, 25/Aug/2025: 4:30pm - 5:00pm |
Location: Aida Conference hall Meeting hall “Aida”, which can accommodate up to 180 people |
Digital Transmission of Financial Knowledge: Evidence from Stock Market Investment
1SUSTech Business School,; 2Bank of International Settlement; 3Shanghai University of Finance and Economics,; 4NUS business school and SUSTech Business School
We study digital platforms’ transmission of financial knowledge and their effects on
users’ investment in stocks and performance. Leveraging a proprietary dataset from one
of China’s largest digital platforms, we measure users’ acquisition of financial knowledge
through various platform information channels. Using a quasi-experiment setting to instrumentalize
the acquisition, we find that the acquisition substantially increases stock
market participation and enhances investment behaviors’ sophistication and performance,
especially for older, inexperienced, and less wealthy households. Thus, digitalization democratizes
finance by providing low-cost and scalable financial education, empowering
individuals to make investment decisions aligned with portfolio theory