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Investments: Women Are More Cautious than Men because They Have Less Financial Resources at Their Disposal

DIW Weekly Report 1 / 2010, S. 1-4

Oleg Badunenko, Nataliya Barasinska, Dorothea Schäfer

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Abstract

Experts on investments and financial products assume that women are less amenable to risks and therefore put their money into secure investment products. A current study conducted by the DIW Berlin (German Institute for Economic Research) challenges this view. The study demonstrates that men and women are equally likely to take a chance on risky investments - assuming that they have the same financial resources at their disposal. A general cliché may not longer be true: that sex is a determinant factor in investment decisions and that the difference in attitudes toward investment between men and women is a result of gender-based investment attitudes. Women are likely to have cautious investment habits because - as a rule - they have only half the investment resources available that men have at their disposal.

Dorothea Schäfer

Research Director Financial Markets in the Communications Department



JEL-Classification: G11;J16
Keywords: Gender, Risk aversion, Financial behavior
Frei zugängliche Version: (econstor)
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/151076

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