Fiction or Fact: Systematic Gender Differences in Financial Investments?
14 Pages Posted: 30 Nov 2006 Last revised: 8 Nov 2017
Date Written: April 12, 2010
Abstract
We investigate whether there are systematic gender differences in financial investment decisions. We use an exceptionally comprehensive register based panel data set including a wide range of socioeconomic and financial background characteristics of both investors who do and do not hold stocks. This allows us to (i) evaluate systematic gender differences in stock market participation and to (ii) investigate if portfolio choice varies systematically across gender. Statistically, males make more risky financial investments, but in economic terms, the differences are almost negligible. The apparently large gender differences in financial investment decisions are artifacts of previous studies based on non-comprehensive and selective data.
Keywords: Stock market participation, Bond market participation, Gender, Portfolio Choice
JEL Classification: G11, J16
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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