The Banker's Oath And Financial Advice

Arbeitspapier

Financial misbehavior is widespread and costly. The Dutch government legally requires every employee in the financial sector to take a Hippocratic oath, the so-called "banker's oath." We investigate whether moral nudges that directly and indirectly remind financial advisers of their oath affect their service. In a large-scale audit study, professional auditors confronted 201 Dutch financial advisers with a conflict of interest. We find that when auditors apply a moral nudge, referring to the banker's oath, advisers are less likely to prioritize bank's interests. In additional prediction tasks, we find that Dutch regulators expect stronger effects of the oath than observed.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Papers in Economics and Statistics ; No. 2021-04

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Group Behavior ; Expectations; Speculations ; Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
• Subject: experimental finance ; audit study ; banker's oath ; moral nudges ; financial advice

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Weitzel, Utz ; Kirchler, Michael
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Innsbruck, Research Platform Empirical and Experimental Economics (eeecon)
• (where): Innsbruck
• (when): 2021

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/238262
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET