Gender Differences in Risk Aversion and Ambiguity Aversion

Lex Borghans, Bart Golsteyn (), James J. Heckman and Huub Meijers

No 5, Research Memoranda from Maastricht : ROA, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market

Abstract: This paper demonstrates gender differences in risk aversion and ambiguityaversion. It also contributes to a growing literature relating economic preferenceparameters to psychological measures by asking whether variations in preferenceparameters among persons, and in particular across genders, can be accounted forby differences in personality traits and traits of cognition. Women are more riskaverse than men. Over an initial range, women require no further compensationfor the introduction of ambiguity but men do. At greater levels of ambiguity,women have the same marginal distaste for increased ambiguity as men.Psychological variables account for some of the interpersonal variation in riskaversion. They explain none of the differences in ambiguity.

Keywords: education, training and the labour market (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec and nep-lab
Date: 2009
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Related works:
Working Paper: Gender Differences in Risk Aversion and Ambiguity Aversion (2009)
Working Paper: Gender Differences in Risk Aversion and Ambiguity Aversion (2009)
Journal Article: Gender Differences in Risk Aversion and Ambiguity Aversion (2009)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dgr:umaror:2009005

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