A Reconsideration of Gender Differences in Risk Attitudes

Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory Working Papers 2014-01

31 Pages Posted: 27 Feb 2014

See all articles by Antonio Filippin

Antonio Filippin

Università degli Studi di Milano; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Paolo Crosetto

Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: January 30, 2014

Abstract

This paper reconsiders the wide agreement that females are more risk averse than males providing a leap forward in its understanding. Thoroughly surveying the literature we first find that gender differences are less ubiquitous than usually depicted. Gathering the microdata of an even larger sample of Holt and Laury replications we boost the statistical power of the test and we show that the magnitude of gender differences, although significant, is economically unimportant. We conclude that gender differences systematically correlate with the features of the elicitation method used and in particular the availability of a safe option and fixed probabilities.

Keywords: Gender, Risk, Survey

JEL Classification: C81, C91, D81

Suggested Citation

Filippin, Antonio and Crosetto, Paolo, A Reconsideration of Gender Differences in Risk Attitudes (January 30, 2014). Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory Working Papers 2014-01, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2402139 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2402139

Antonio Filippin

Università degli Studi di Milano ( email )

Milan, 20122
Italy

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Paolo Crosetto (Contact Author)

Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory ( email )

BP 47
38040 Grenoble
France

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