Behavioral Consistency in Green Lifestyle and Green Investment
43 Pages Posted: 3 Nov 2023
There are 2 versions of this paper
Behavioral Consistency in Green Lifestyle and Green Investment
Do Gamified Social Interactions on a Green Fintech App Nudge Users' Green Investments?
Date Written: October 8, 2023
Abstract
We hypothesize that retail investors exhibit consistent green awareness toward lifestyle behaviors and investment decisions. Employing granular individuals' behavior data from Ant Forest on Alipay, the leading Fintech App in China, we find that individuals with higher levels of pro-environmental behavior in their daily lives have stronger preferences for green investments. For instance, individuals who walk more (instead of driving) tend to invest in green mutual funds in the following month. Our results remain robust after considering alternative measures of green lifestyle behavior and green funds. Overall, we document a novel behavioral consistency between individuals' green lifestyles and financial decision-making.
Keywords: Green investment, Retail investors, Behavioral consistency theory, Fintech App, Pro-environmental behavior
JEL Classification: G11, G18, G41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation