Analysis of Active Vs Passive Investment Behavior in Emerging Markets

Responses from 480 Indian respondents, 240 each investing in Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds were studied to assess individual investors behavioral biases with the help of factors of herding, market, prospect, overconfidence and availability bias by using one way MANOVA approach. Results indicate that the Mutual Fund (active investment) investors show significantly higher behavioral biases as compared to Exchange Traded Fund (passive investment) investors in emerging markets. Behavioral biases effect on investments has been extensively studied on individual products, but this article is the first attempt to make comparative analysis of behavioral biases on active and passive investments. Behavioral biases have received little attention in the developing markets and results of this paper have practical implications for policymakers in understanding the dynamic behavior of the active and passive investors and educate the investors for proper investment decisions.