Digital Transmission of Financial Knowledge: Evidence from Stock Market Investment

This paper studies how a digital platform’s transmission of financial knowledge influences users’ stock market participation and investment performance. Lever-aging a Chinese platform’s randomly distributed nudges as an instrument, we find that the resultant increase in exposure to financial knowledge and information raises stock investment, enhances diversification, and improves risk-adjusted returns, even for older, less educated, and less affluent users. Learning-oriented and non-sponsored information channels primarily drive these improvements, whereas sponsored con-tent contributes little. Although initial reactions are modest, repeated exposure gradually reduces inertia and boosts engagement. Digitalization thus provides a scalable, low-cost avenue for democratizing finance and improving decisions.