Gender and birth-order differences in time and risk preferences and decisions

Elina Lampi and Katarina Nordblom (katarina.nordblom@economics.gu.se)

No 388, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: We study how gender, birth-order and number of siblings are related to stated time and risk preferences and real-life decisions. We use survey data covering about 2,300 individuals and find that time and risk preferences are significantly correlated among women but not among men. We also find that stated time and risk preferences have clear explanatory power for real-life decisions, but in different ways for men and women. Moreover, risk preferences have stronger explanatory power for males than for females, whose decisions are more related to birth order and number of siblings. For example, the often claimed result that first-borns are more likely to have higher education is found among women only, while risk aversion and patience can explain part of men's corresponding choice.

Keywords: risk preferences; time preferences; gender; birth order (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 D81 D90 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2009-10-05, Revised 2011-06-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-lab and nep-mic
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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