Digital Transmission of Financial Knowledge: Evidence from Stock Market Investment *

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of a digital platform's transmission of financialknowledge on users' stock market participation and investment performance.Leveraging a Chinese platform's randomly distributed prompts as an instrument,we demonstrate that access to financial information increases stock investment,enhances portfolio diversification, and improves risk-adjusted returns, even amongolder, less educated and less affluent users. Although initial responses to the promptsare modest, sustained exposure overcomes inertia and drives considerable engagement.Digitalization thus holds promises for democratizing finance by providingscalable, low-cost financial education that helps individuals make more informedinvestment decisions.

Keywords

Tags of Social Finance