Any mechanism that shifts risk from those who choose to withdraw from it to those more willing to take it on increases investment without significantly raising the perceived degree of discomfort from risk borne by the public. By itself, more abundant real-time information should both reduce the uncertainties and lower the variances employed to guide portfolio decisions.
At least part of the observed fall in equity premiums in our economy and others over the past five years may have resulted from a permanent technology-driven increase in information availability, which by definition reduces uncertainty and therefore risk premiums. And because knowledge once gained is irreversible, so too are the lowered risk premiums.