Information Asymmetry, Moral Hazard, and Investment Performance: The Moderating Role of Financial Literacy among Indonesian Millennial Investors
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59261/inkubis.v8i3.466Keywords:
Information Asymmetry, Moral Hazard, Investment Performance, Financial literacy, Millennial InvestorsAbstract
Background: The rapid growth of millennial participation in Indonesia’s capital market has increased access to investment opportunities while creating challenges related to information quality, opportunistic behavior, and investors’ ability to evaluate financial information.
Objective: This study examines the relationships between information asymmetry and moral hazard and investment performance and investigates the moderating role of financial literacy among Indonesian millennial investors.
Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional explanatory design was employed involving 247 investors aged 31–40 years who possessed a Single Investor Identification (SID), held a bachelor’s degree, and had at least one year of experience investing in the capital market. Data were collected using an online five-point Likert scale questionnaire and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4 and 5,000 bootstrap resamples.
Results: Information asymmetry was not significantly associated with investment performance (β = 0.050; p = 0.226), while moral hazard also was not significantly associated with investment performance (β = 0.100; p = 0.052). Financial literacy significantly moderated the relationship between information asymmetry and investment performance (β = 0.151; p < 0.001) but did not significantly moderate the relationship between moral hazard and investment performance (β = −0.053; p = 0.342).
Conclusion: Financial literacy operates as a selective rather than universal moderator, indicating that its moderating role differs across distinct sources of investment risk.
Downloads
References
Adil, M., Singh, Y., & Ansari, M. S. (2022). How financial literacy moderate the association between behaviour biases and investment decision? Asian Journal of Accounting Research, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1108/AJAR-09-2020-0086
Akerlof, G. A. (1970). The market for “lemons”: Quality uncertainty and the market mechanism. In Quarterly Journal of Economics (Vol. 84, Number 3). https://doi.org/10.2307/1879431
Altman, M. (2013). What Behavioural Economics Has to Say about Financial Literacy. Applied Finance Letters, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.24135/afl.v2i1.9
Barber, B. M. , and T. O. (2013). The behavior of individual investors . Handbook of the Economics of Finance, 1533–1570.
Barber, B. M., & Odean, T. (2000). Trading is hazardous to your wealth: The common stock investment performance of individual investors. Journal of Finance, 55(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-1082.00226
Bustamante, D., & Ubilla, A. (2026). Retail investor behavior and social media signals: exploring attention dynamics. Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEFAS-10-2025-0378
Constantino, T. D. S. T., Da Silva, A. C. M., & Constantino, M. A. M. D. O. (2024). Ponzi schemes in Brazil: what leads people to still invest in this fraud? Journal of Financial Crime, 31(6). https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-10-2023-0262
Cumaio, S., Serrasqueiro, Z., & Madaleno, M. (2026). Linking Financial Literacy and Behavioural Finance to Saving and Debt Behaviours: A Literature Review of Global and Developing Economy Contexts. In Journal of Risk and Financial Management (Vol. 19, Number 6). https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm19060425
Dhandapani, D. B., & Kathiravan, C. (2026). The impact of behavioural determinants on investment decisions with evidence from meta analysis and meta structural equation modelling. In Discover Sustainability (Vol. 7, Number 1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-02737-5
Douhabi, E. M., & Drissi, Z. (2026). A PRISMA-Based Systematic Review of Behavioral Biases and Demographic Moderators in Investment Decision-Making. In Journal of Risk and Financial Management (Vol. 19, Number 6). https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm19060418
Fernandes, D., Lynch, J. G., & Netemeyer, R. G. (2014). Financial literacy, financial education, and downstream financial behaviors. Management Science, 60(8). https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2013.1849
Gorzon, D., Bormann, M., & von Nitzsch, R. (2024). Measuring costly behavioral bias factors in portfolio management: a review. Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, 38(2). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11408-024-00444-7
Hair Jr, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2021). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Sage publications.
Healy, P. M., & Palepu, K. G. (2001). Information asymmetry, corporate disclosure, and the capital markets: A review of the empirical disclosure literature. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 31(1–3). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-4101(01)00018-0
Hoffmann, A. O. I., Post, T., & Pennings, J. M. E. (2013). Individual investor perceptions and behavior during the financial crisis. Journal of Banking and Finance, 37(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2012.08.007
Hott, C. (2022). Leverage and Risk Taking under Moral Hazard. Journal of Financial Services Research, 61(2). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10693-021-00359-8
Jensen, M. C., & Meckling, W. H. (1976). Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. 3, 305–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.03.005
Kahneman, D. and M. W. R. (1998). Aspects of investor psychology. Journal of Portfolio Management, 24(4).
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (2013). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. In Handbook of the fundamentals of financial decision making: Part I (pp. 99–127). World Scientific.
Katenova, M., Frolova, Y., & Schmunkamp, P. (2025). Behavioral Finance in the sphere of investment: Systematic Review of Literature between 2020 and 2025. F1000Research, 14. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.166104.1
Kurniadi, A. C. and C. H. (2023). Factors affecting investment decisions on millennials and Gen Z. Jurnal Manajemen, 8(3), 477–494.
Lusardi, A., & Mitchell, O. S. (2014). The economic importance of financial literacy: Theory and evidence. Journal of Economic Literature, 52(1), 5–44.
Ndukaji, A. (2025). FINTECH AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN EMERGING ECONOMIES: EVIDENCE FROM DIGITAL PAYMENTS, MOBILE BANKING, AND ENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE. Ssrn.
OECD. (2023). OECD/INFE International Survey of Adult Financial Literacy.
Pernagallo, G., & Torrisi, B. (2022). A theory of information overload applied to perfectly efficient financial markets. Review of Behavioral Finance, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.1108/RBF-07-2019-0088
Raja Guru, K. B., Prasad, K., Dubey, S. P., & Kharbanda, S. (2026). Digital Sentiment and the Retail Crowd: How Finfluencers Shape IPO Valuations. Journal of Behavioral Finance, 27(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/15427560.2025.2566736
Raut, R. K. (2020). Past behaviour, financial literacy and investment decision-making process of individual investors. International Journal of Emerging Markets, 15(6). https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOEM-07-2018-0379
Rehman, K., & Mia, M. A. (2024). Determinants of financial literacy: a systematic review and future research directions. Future Business Journal, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-024-00365-x
Sharpe, W. F. (1988). The sharpe ratio. Journal of Portfolio Management.
Shroff, S. J., Paliwal, U. L., & Dewasiri, N. J. (2024). Unraveling the impact of financial literacy on investment decisions in an emerging market. Business Strategy and Development, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/bsd2.337
Statman, M. (2020). Behavioral Finance: The Second Generation. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3668963
Syukur, A., Amron, A., Riyanto, F., Putra, F. I. F. S., & Pangemanan, R. R. (2025). Generational Insights into Herding Behavior: The Moderating Role of Investment Experience in Shaping Decisions Among Generations X, Y, and Z. International Journal of Financial Studies, 13(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs13030176
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases. Biases in judgments reveal some heuristics of thinking under uncertainty. Science, 185.
Wendy, W. (2024). The nexus between financial literacy, risk perception and investment decisions: Evidence from Indonesian investors. Investment Management and Financial Innovations, 21(3). https://doi.org/10.21511/imfi.21(3).2024.12
Zainuddin, Z. (2025). Stock Market Literacy: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda. Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal, 19(3).
Zega, S. H., & Satato, Y. (2025). Exploring factors influencing millennial generation investment decisions in indonesian capital market: A phenomenological study approach. Accounting and Finance Studies, 5(1), 067-081
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Inkubis : Jurnal Ekonomi dan Bisnis

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.




