Working Paper2025SSRN

Celebrity Influencers: This is not Financial Advice

Authors: Matteo Benetton, William Mullins, Marina Niessner, Jan Toczynski

Abstract

We study how celebrity influencers affect financial decision-making and investor behavior. Using data from social media platforms, we document that celebrity endorsements significantly influence retail investors' trading activity and portfolio choices, with effects persisting beyond the initial exposure.

Keywords

celebrity influencesocial mediaretail investorsfinancial decision-makingpersuasion

Tags of Social Finance

#Social Transmission Biases#Media and Textual Analysis#Archival Empirical#Financing- and Investment Decisions (Individual)