Does society influence the gender gap in risk attitudes? Evidence from East and West Germany

Cornelia Chadi and Uwe Jirjahn

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), 2024, vol. 113, issue C

Abstract: Previous international research suggests that women are on average more risk averse than men. This gives rise to the question of whether the gender gap in risk attitudes is shaped by the social environment. We address this question by examining risk attitudes among East and West Germans. Even many years after reunification, East Germans have much more equal gender roles than West Germans. Thus, if the gender gap reflects socially constructed norms, it should be smaller among East Germans. Using data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), our empirical analysis confirms this prediction. Specifically with respect to career and financial matters, the gender gap in risk tolerance is smaller among East Germans. We find no evidence that the East German gender gap has converged to the higher West German level after reunification. By contrast, our estimates provide some cautious indications that the West German gap has narrowed over time.

Keywords: Risk preferences; Endogenous preferences; Gender Roles; Nurture; Nature (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 J16 P51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214804324001484
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Does Society Influence the Gender Gap in Risk Attitudes? Evidence from East and West Germany (2019)
Working Paper: Does Society Influence the Gender Gap in Risk Attitudes? Evidence from East and West Germany (2019)
Working Paper: Does Society Influence the Gender Gap in Risk Attitudes? Evidence from East and West Germany (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceco:v:113:y:2024:i:c:s2214804324001484

DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2024.102311

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics) is currently edited by Pablo Brañas Garza

More articles in Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics) from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().