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The literature has demonstrated that lump-sum (LS) outperforms dollar-cost averaging (DCA) in uptrend markets while DCA outperforms LS only when the asset price is mean-reverted or downtrend. To bridge the gap in the literature, this study aims to use both Sharpe ratio (SR) and economic performance measure (EPM) to compare the performance of DCA and LS under both accumulative and disaccumulative approaches when the asset price is simulated to be uptrend.

This study uses both disaccumulative and accumulative approaches to compare DCA with LS and uses both SR and EPM to evaluate their performance when the asset price is simulated to be uptrend. Instead of using the annualized returns that are commonly used by other DCA studies, we compute the holding-period returns in the comparison in this paper.

The simulation shows that no matter which approach is used, DCA outperforms LS in nearly all the cases in the less uptrend markets while DCA still performs better than LS in many cases of the uptrend markets, especially when the market is more volatile and investment horizon is long, regardless which approach the authors used. The authors also find more evidence supporting DCA over LS by using EPM, which is more suitable in the analysis because the returns generated by DCA are positive skewed and flat-tailed that are ignored when SR is used.

The authors conclude that DCA is a better trading strategy than LS for investment even in the uptrend market, especially on high risky assets.

Investors could consider choosing DCA instead of LS as their trading strategy, especially when they prefer long term investment and investing in high-risk assets.

Fund managers could consider recommending DCA to their customers, especially when they prefer long term investment and investing in high-risk assets.

This is the own study and, as far as the authors know, this is the first study in the literature uses both SR and EPM to compare the performance of DCA and LS under both accumulative and disaccumulative approaches when the asset price is simulated to be uptrend.

Deferred annuities, which offer longevity insurance with relatively low premiums, are a potential payout option in defined contribution (DC) pension plans in Japan. This study aims to measure individual preferences for these annuities.

This study conducts stated choice experiments using an original internet survey. This methodology provides a decision-making scenario similar to that faced by individuals when making real retirement saving decisions. Subjective valuations of deferred, immediate and term annuities are compared.

This study finds that male individuals have an insignificant preference for deferred annuities – the benefits of which begin at an advanced age. On average, deferred annuities are considered a gamble, betting against life and individuals who are married and have higher financial assets tend to value them less.

While previous studies, based on theory and simulations, have found that deferred annuities should be included in individual retirement assets, this study examines annuity preferences from the demand side (i.e. DC plan participants) –an approach that has not been addressed in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether affective factors such as goal desires, positive anticipated emotions, anticipated regret and non-volitional actions like habits influence retail mutual fund investing.

Using the model of goal-directed behavior (MGB), the impact of affective factors and habits was compared against a cognitively driven model. Data were collected through a survey of 321 mutual fund investors across India and analyzed using the partial least squares method.

Goal-based desires were a significant driver of investing intentions while actual investing was driven by habits. Anticipated regret strongly influenced desires. The overall explanation of variance in intentions and investing behaviors was improved by 27 and 28% respectively by the new model.

The current investments in mutual funds is used as a proxy for future investing behaviors so results need to be interpreted accordingly. Future research directions could include the effects of mood, impact of language, religion and culture.

For “emotionally complex” cultures, impact of emotive drivers and habits play a significant part in investing and fund houses need to orient their marketing accordingly.

Awareness programs on how emotive issues and habits can hinder as well as enhance investment performance in markets would benefit retail investors.

The study is unique in analyzing affective and non-volitional factors and in showing that intentions are not sufficient to explain behaviors. It analyzes not just intentions as most studies do, but end behaviors of investors as well. It uses the MGB theoretical framework from behavioral psychology that has not been applied to financial behaviors before.

This paper aims to analyse how financial literacy (FL) is conceptualised and operationalised in the Indian context.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) protocol. Thirty-six articles published between 2010 and 2020 were considered for analysis. The FL conceptualisation was examined based on knowledge, ability, skill, attitude and confidence elements. The FL operationalisation was analysed using the modified version of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 model for organising the domain for an assessment framework.

The findings indicate that, despite offering operationalisation details of the FL, 13 out of 36 studies did not include a conceptual definition of FL. Of the 23 studies that mentioned a conceptual definition, 87% are primarily focused on the “knowledge” element and only 39% have combined knowledge, ability/skill and attitude elements in defining FL. As in the developed countries, the Indian studies also preferred investment/saving-related contents in their FL measures. The volume of content focusing on the financial landscape is meagre amongst the FL measures used in India and developed countries. The survey instruments of most studies have been designed in the individuals’ context but have failed to measure the extent to which individuals apply the knowledge in performing their day-to-day financial transactions. Further, it was found that 20 out of 36 studies did not convert the FL level of their target groups into a single indicator or operational value.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that explores the FL’s assessment practices in India. Further, this study offers new insights by comparing the contents of FL measures used in Indian studies with those used in developed countries.

We examine whether the suitability principles hold for the mutual fund industry in Korea, by analyzing the dynamics and the characteristics of the multi-class fund flows. For 12-years from 2002 to 2013, the volatility of fund flows associated with A-class fund, which is more appropriate for long-term investments, is larger than that associated with C-class fund. Therefore, it can be interpreted that the suitability principles do not hold. To examine the empirical observation, we mainly focus on the role of the dollar cost averaging (DCA) style funds. We show that if we adjust for the effect of DCA funds, the suitability principles does not hold only before the 2008 financial crisis. Thus, we argue that individuals' irrational decision making is caused by heavy investments on A-class fund through DCA style types before the financial crisis. This leads to the observed violation of the suitability principles before the crisis. Our findings also suggest that after the financial crisis, the mutual fund industry in Korea becomes mature.