Individualism and Stock Market Participation

Speaker：Gan Xu（Assistant Professor, School of management, Huazhong University of science and technology）

Host：Zhu Xiaoyu, Assistant Professor, Lingnan College

Time and Date：16:00-18:00, Jun.17, 2022

Venue: Room 902, Lingnan MBA Building

Language: English

Abstract:

In this paper, we examine the relation between individualistic culture and household stock market participation. To establish causality, we adopt the epidemiological approach and exploit variations in the level of individualism in second-generation immigrants’ countries of origin. We find that individualism has a positive effect on individuals’ propensity to invest in stocks. This cultural effect is stronger among people with lower socioeconomic status. In addition, individualistic culture increases levels of trust and optimism among households, which are important drivers of stock market participation. Our findings suggest that culture has a persistent and profound effect on household financial risk taking. 

 Profile of the speaker 

Gan Xu, a lecturer of the Department of Finance and Finance of the School of Management of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the research direction is family finance and corporate finance. The research results were published in Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Economics Dynamics and other academic journals. He has repeatedly reported papers in academic conferences at home and abroad, such as the US Financial College Congress (AFA), the Annual Conference of the US Financial Management Society (FMA), the Asian Financial College Conference (AsianFa), the Chinese Financial College Conference, etc.; National Award of China Delin Island Project (Economics).