Model-free and Model-based Learning as Joint Drivers of Investor Behavior
Professor Lawrence Jin
Associate Professor of Finance
Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
Cornell University
Motivated by neural evidence on the brain’s computations, cognitive scientists are increasingly adopting a framework that combines two systems, namely “model-free” and “model-based” learning. We import this framework into a financial setting, study its properties, and use it to account for a range of facts about investor behavior. These include extrapolative demand, experience effects, the disconnect between investor allocations and beliefs in the frequency domain and the cross-section, the inertia in investors’ allocations, and stock market non-participation. Our results suggest that model-free learning plays a significant cant role in the behavior of some investors.
