Title

Gender differences in revealed risk taking: evidence from mutual fund investors

Authors

Authors

P. D. Dwyer; J. H. Gilkeson;J. A. List

Abbreviated Journal Title

Econ. Lett.

Keywords

risk taking; gender differences; Economics

Abstract

Using data from a national survey of nearly 2000 mutual fund investors, we investigate whether investor gender is related to risk taking as revealed in mutual fund investment decisions. Consonant with the received literature, we find that women exhibit less risk-taking than men in their most recent, largest, and riskiest mutual fund investment decisions. More importantly, we find that the impact of gender on risk taking is significantly weakened when investor knowledge of financial markets and investments is controlled in the regression equation. This result suggests that the greater level of risk aversion among women that is frequently documented in the literature can be substantially, but not completely, explained by knowledge disparities. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Economics Letters

Volume

76

Issue/Number

2

Publication Date

1-1-2002

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

151

Last Page

158

WOS Identifier

WOS:000177172700001

ISSN

0165-1765

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