Investor Research

June 10, 2024

The Office of the Investor Advocate's Office of Investor Research (OIR) conducts research on issues that affect a broad set of investors to better identify problems that investors may have and analyze the potential impacts of rules or regulations on investors.

This research aims to inform the rulemaking process with evidence obtained from surveys and tests of the impacts of potential policy changes.

Explore OIR’s Research

Trends in Retail Investor Behavior from OIR’s THRIVE Panel

Full Reports and Peer-Reviewed Publications

Working Papers

What is the Office of Investor Research?

The Office of Investor Research promotes evidence-based outcomes by providing novel research and data focused on retail investors. OIR aims to inform the rulemaking process with evidence obtained from surveys and tests of the impacts of potential policy changes.

These tests and surveys identify investor beliefs, desires, and goals, and explore factors that may affect investors’ behavior.

To achieve these goals, OIR explores investment decisions from multiple directions. For instance, in work concentrating on investor capabilities, we may measure investors' financial knowledge and the relationship between knowledge and decision making. In our work concentrating on regulatory interventions, we have examined difficulties associated with mandated disclosures – information that people receive to make investment decisions, including work on mutual fund benchmarks and registered index-linked annuities.

Since initial data collection began in June 2017, OIR has conducted: (1) Over 70 survey research projects and (2) 18 large-scale, in-depth qualitative studies.

Core Research Areas

The Office of Investor Research's priorities evolve to address current events and critical areas of investor need in order to advance the SEC’s Investor Protection mission and to fulfill the Office of the Investor Advocate’s statutory mandates. Our research agenda currently focuses on the following topics:

  • Disclosures and Information
    What information do investors receive about potential investments? When and how is that information delivered? How can we make that information more useful and more easily understood? What are the consequences of receiving that information for investor decision-making and behavior?
  • Financial Advice
    What leads investors to seek financial advice, and how do they find advisers? Can investors discern the quality of advice they receive, and does that affect their willingness to follow it? What advice do investors find the most helpful, and how much do they benefit?
  • Factors Affecting Investment Decisions
    What are the individual, household, and macroeconomic factors affecting investment decisions? For instance, how do decisions differ across varying levels of financial literacy and household wealth, or in response to events like job loss and the emergence of a global pandemic?

Last Reviewed or Updated: June 3, 2025

Resources