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Gender Differences in Risk Aversion and Ambiguity Aversion

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Author Info
Lex Borghans
Bart H.H. Golsteyn
James J. Heckman
Huub Meijers

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Abstract

This paper demonstrates gender differences in risk aversion and ambiguity aversion. It also contributes to a growing literature relating economic preference parameters to psychological measures by asking whether variations in preference parameters among persons, and in particular across genders, can be accounted for by differences in personality traits and traits of cognition. Women are more risk averse than men. Over an initial range, women require no further compensation for the introduction of ambiguity but men do. At greater levels of ambiguity, women have the same marginal distaste for increased ambiguity as men. Psychological variables account for some of the interpersonal variation in risk aversion. They explain none of the differences in ambiguity.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 14713.

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Date of creation: Feb 2009
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14713

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Economics; Underlying Principles

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  11. Julie R. Agnew & Lisa R. Anderson & Jeffrey R. Gerlach & Lisa R. Szykman, 2008. "Who Chooses Annuities? An Experimental Investigation of the Role of Gender, Framing, and Defaults," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 418-22, May. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Powell, Melanie & Ansic, David, 1997. "Gender differences in risk behaviour in financial decision-making: An experimental analysis," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 605-628, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Akay, Alpaslan & Martinsson, Peter & Medhin, Haileselassie & Trautmann, Stefan T., 2009. "Attitudes toward Uncertainty among the Poor: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia," IZA Discussion Papers 4225, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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