信任水平的提高会增加个人投资者的收益吗?——一项基于STZ方法的实验考察

Does Individual Investor's Payoff Increase with Their Trust Level? An Experiment Study of Trust Using STZ Method

信任作为一种社会资本在经济活动中具有重要的意义。既有的研究主要从宏观层面探讨整体社会信任水平对经济发展的积极促进作用。本文采用Sapienza,Toldra和Zingales等人的研究方法(STZ方法),从微观的角度考察个人投资者的信任水平对投资收益的影响。研究发现两者之间是存在峰度的∩型关系。对于个人投资者来说,投资收益随着信任水平的提高而提高,在达到最高点后,随着信任水平的继续提高,投资收益会迅速下降。最优的投资收益是由信任水平接近整体平均信任水平的投资者实现的,信任水平过高和过低对经济发展都会造成不利的影响。

Trust, as an important form of social capital, plays a critical role in the economy. The past literatures show the positive relationship between the trust level and the economic growth at the aggregate level. This paper studies the relationship between the individual investor＇s trust level and their payoff using the STZ method and it is found that there is the ∩-shape relationship exists. Individual＇s payoff is increasing with the trust level until it reaches the highest level. After that the payoff is deceasing with the trust. The optimal payoff is achieved by the individual whose trust level is close to the average. It damages the economy if the trust level is too high or too low.