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Do Women Prefer Pink? The Effect of a Gender Stereotypical Stock Portfolio on Investing Decisions

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  • Henriëtte Prast
  • Mariacristina Rossi
  • Costanza Torricelli
  • Dario Sansone

Abstract

We investigate whether lack of familiarity with the companies in the stock market index may contribute to a gender gap in stock market participation and risk taking. We consider the Netherlands because recent reforms have reduced the generosity of mandatory pension and social security arrangements and created the need for many employees to decide on how to allocate (pension) savings. Moreover, the gender gap in pensions in the Nether- lands is above that of the OECD average. We construct a «pink» portfolio with stocks that are supposed to be more familiar to women (based on ads in widely read women magazines) and a «blue» one with stocks from the market index (AEX). We then ask members of the CentERpanel how they would allocate a certain amount of pension wealth between govern- ment bonds and a stock portfolio, whereby half of respondents, randomly selected, are given the pink portfolio and half the blue one as an alternative to bonds. Based on a set of limited dependent variable models, we find that familiarity is correlated to decision time for women, but it affects risk-taking only for women over 60. We do find a strong response order effect on risk taking, which moreover is larger for women than for men, and interpret the latter as reflecting a gender gap in confidence.

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  • Henriëtte Prast & Mariacristina Rossi & Costanza Torricelli & Dario Sansone, 2015. "Do Women Prefer Pink? The Effect of a Gender Stereotypical Stock Portfolio on Investing Decisions," Politica economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 377-420.
    • Handle: RePEc:mul:je8794:doi:10.1429/81935:y:2015:i:3:p:377-420
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    Cited by:

    1. Bannier, Christina E. & Neubert, Milena, 2016. "Gender differences in financial risk taking: The role of financial literacy and risk tolerance," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 130-135.
    2. Boggio, C. & Fornero, E. & Prast, H.M. & Sanders, J., 2015. "Seven Ways to Knit Your Portfolio : Is Investor Communication Neutral?," Other publications TiSEM 81e1098a-af2d-4107-a298-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. Jürg Hari & Elisabeth Pirsch & Heike Rawitzer, 2018. "Women are scaredy-cats and men are conquerors?," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(2), pages 128-139, June.
    4. Wang, Qian & Wang, Jun & Gao, Feng, 2021. "Who is more important, parents or children? Economic and environmental factors and health insurance purchase," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    5. Prast, Henriette & Sanders, José & Boggio, C., 2017. "Seven ways to knit your portfolio: Is the language of investor communication gender neutral?," Other publications TiSEM b477bb2d-f71c-4b9b-ab9e-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Rossi, Mariacristina & Sansone, Dario & van Soest, Arthur & Torricelli, Costanza, 2019. "Household preferences for socially responsible investments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 107-120.
    7. Dylla, Carolin & Ries, Dorothea & Schütt, Karolina, 2024. "Is there no women in investment?," IPE Working Papers 236/2024, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    8. Tina Vohra & Mandeep Kaur, 2018. "Determining Reasons for Lower Participation of Women in Indian Stock Market: A Comparative Study of Stock Investors and Non-investors," Jindal Journal of Business Research, , vol. 7(2), pages 87-102, December.
    9. Laurentiu-Cristian Ciobotaru & Sul Kim & Arthur Soest, 2021. "Household Preferences for Investing in Crowdfunding," De Economist, Springer, vol. 169(4), pages 499-522, November.
    10. Cecilia Boggio & Elsa Fornero & Henriette Prast & Jose Sanders, 2014. "Seven Ways to Knit Your Portfolio: Is Investor Communication Neutral?," CeRP Working Papers 140, Center for Research on Pensions and Welfare Policies, Turin (Italy).
    11. Dragos, Simona Laura & Dragos, Cristian Mihai & Muresan, Gabriela Mihaela, 2020. "From intention to decision in purchasing life insurance and private pensions: different effects of knowledge and behavioural factors," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    12. Maria Cristina Rossi & Dario Sansone & Costanza Torricelli & Arthur van Soest, 2018. "Household Preferences for Socially Responsible Investments," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 18021, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    13. Heena Thanki & Sweety Shah & Vrajlal Sapovadia & Ankit D. Oza & Dumitru Doru Burduhos-Nergis, 2022. "Role of Gender in Predicting Determinant of Financial Risk Tolerance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-13, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender differences; portfolio choice; familiarity.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G02 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Behavioral Finance: Underlying Principles
    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • M30 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - General

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