Risk Attitudes and Investment Decisions across European Countries: Are Women More Conservative Investors than Men?

Oleg Badunenko, Nataliya Barasinska and Dorothea Schäfer

No 224, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: This study questions the popular stereotype that women are more risk averse than men in their financial investment decisions. The analysis is based on micro-level data from large-scale surveys of private households in five European countries. In our analysis of investment decisions, we directly account for individuals' self-perceivedwillingness to take financial risks. The empirical evidence we provide only weakly supports the gender differences argument. We find that women are less likely to invest in risky financial assets. However, when the probability of investing is controlled for, males and females are found to allocate equal shares of their wealth to risky assets.

Keywords: Gender; risk aversion; financial behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G11 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 p.
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Risk Attitudes and Investment Decisions across European Countries: Are Women More Conservative Investors than Men? (2009)
Working Paper: Risk Attitudes and Investment Decisions across European Countries: Are Women More Conservative Investors than Men? (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp224

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