IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/109755.html

How Risk Aversion and Financial Literacy Shape Young Adults’ Investment Preferences

Author

Listed:
  • Stoian, Andreea
  • Vintila, Nicoleta
  • Iorgulescu, Filip
  • Cepoi, Cosmin Octavian
  • Dina Manolache, Aurora

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between risk aversion, financial literacy, and investment preferences of young adults in higher education in Romania. For this purpose, we conducted a survey that measured the basic, advanced and overall financial literacy, risk aversion, and parental financial behaviours. We had 479 respondents and a similar number of useable surveys. Resorting to OLS and IV econometric methods, we show that financial literacy, regardless of its level, contributes to reducing risk aversion quantified by the risk premium. Moreover, positive financial behaviours of parents also decrease the risk aversion. This finding is invalid in the case of a self-assessed risk tolerance. We also found that young adults' investment preferences are influenced by the self-assessed risk tolerance and not by the risk aversion. However, financial literacy increases the probability of young adults to select bonds or funds as investment options, but does not have a statistically significant influence on the selection of stocks, which is mainly driven by the self-assessed risk profile as well as bank deposits.

Suggested Citation

  • Stoian, Andreea & Vintila, Nicoleta & Iorgulescu, Filip & Cepoi, Cosmin Octavian & Dina Manolache, Aurora, 2021. "How Risk Aversion and Financial Literacy Shape Young Adults’ Investment Preferences," MPRA Paper 109755, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:109755
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/109755/1/MPRA_paper_109755.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tabea Bucher-Koenen & Michael Ziegelmeyer, 2014. "Once Burned, Twice Shy? Financial Literacy and Wealth Losses during the Financial Crisis," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 18(6), pages 2215-2246.
    2. Insler, Michael & Compton, James & Schmitt, Pamela, 2016. "The investment decisions of young adults under relaxed borrowing constraints," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 106-121.
    3. Jianakoplos, Nancy Ammon & Bernasek, Alexandra, 1998. "Are Women More Risk Averse?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(4), pages 620-630, October.
    4. Li, Jianjun & Li, Qize & Wei, Xu, 2020. "Financial literacy, household portfolio choice and investment return," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde & Jürgen Schupp & Gert G. Wagner, 2011. "Individual Risk Attitudes: Measurement, Determinants, And Behavioral Consequences," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 522-550, June.
    6. Almenberg, Johan & Dreber, Anna, 2015. "Gender, stock market participation and financial literacy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 140-142.
    7. Hermansson, Cecilia & Jonsson, Sara, 2021. "The impact of financial literacy and financial interest on risk tolerance," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    8. Donkers, Bas & Melenberg, Bertrand & Van Soest, Arthur, 2001. "Estimating Risk Attitudes Using Lotteries: A Large Sample Approach," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 165-195, March.
    9. Cupák, Andrej & Fessler, Pirmin & Schneebaum, Alyssa, 2021. "Gender differences in risky asset behavior: The importance of self-confidence and financial literacy," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    10. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2014. "The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(1), pages 5-44, March.
    11. Dwyer, Peggy D. & Gilkeson, James H. & List, John A., 2002. "Gender differences in revealed risk taking: evidence from mutual fund investors," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 151-158, July.
    12. Dmytro Hryshko & María José Luengo‐Prado & Bent E. Sørensen, 2011. "Childhood determinants of risk aversion: The long shadow of compulsory education," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 2(1), pages 37-72, March.
    13. Yılmaz Bayar & H. Funda Sezgin & Ömer Faruk Öztürk & Mahmut Ünsal Şaşmaz, 2020. "Financial Literacy and Financial Risk Tolerance of Individual Investors: Multinomial Logistic Regression Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(3), pages 21582440209, July.
    14. Demirguc-Kunt,Asli & Hu,Bingjie & Klapper,Leora, 2019. "Financial Inclusion in the Europe and Central Asia Region : Recent Trends and a Research Agenda," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8830, The World Bank.
    15. Halko, Marja-Liisa & Kaustia, Markku & Alanko, Elias, 2012. "The gender effect in risky asset holdings," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 66-81.
    16. van Rooij, Maarten & Lusardi, Annamaria & Alessie, Rob, 2011. "Financial literacy and stock market participation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 449-472, August.
    17. Cueva, Carlos & Iturbe-Ormaetxe, Iñigo & Ponti, Giovanni & Tomás, Josefa, 2019. "Boys will still be boys: Gender differences in trading activity are not due to differences in (over)confidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 100-120.
    18. Hibbert, Ann Marie & Lawrence, Edward R. & Prakash, Arun J., 2013. "Does knowledge of finance mitigate the gender difference in financial risk-aversion?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 140-152.
    19. Bollen, Nicolas P.B. & Posavac, Steven, 2018. "Gender, risk tolerance, and false consensus in asset allocation recommendations," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 304-317.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Uifalean Razvan, 2025. "Cluster Analysis of Financial Risk Profiles Across the EU," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 19(1), pages 3041-3056.
    2. Razvan Uifalean, 2024. "Risk Attitudes, Financial Literacy and Financial Behavior: A Gender Specific Comparison," The Review of Finance and Banking, Academia de Studii Economice din Bucuresti, Romania / Facultatea de Finante, Asigurari, Banci si Burse de Valori / Catedra de Finante, vol. 16(2), pages 249-271, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cupák, Andrej & Fessler, Pirmin & Schneebaum, Alyssa, 2021. "Gender differences in risky asset behavior: The importance of self-confidence and financial literacy," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    2. Brooks, Chris & Sangiorgi, Ivan & Hillenbrand, Carola & Money, Kevin, 2019. "Experience wears the trousers: Exploring gender and attitude to financial risk," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 483-515.
    3. Lawrence, Edward R. & Nguyen, Thanh D. & Wick, Benedikt, 2024. "Gender difference in overconfidence and household financial literacy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    4. Fey, Jan-Christian & Lerbs, Oliver & Schmidt, Carolin & Weber, Martin, 2020. "Risk attitude and capital market participation: Is there a gender investment gap in Germany?," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-080, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Grohmann, Antonia & Hübler, Olaf & Kouwenberg, Roy & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2021. "Financial literacy: Thai middle-class women do not lag behind," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    6. Baeckström, Ylva & Marsh, Ian W. & Silvester, Joanne, 2021. "Financial advice and gender: Wealthy individual investors in the UK," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Salem, Razan, 2019. "Examining the investment behavior of Arab women in the stock market," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 151-160.
    8. Trinh Quang Long & Peter J. Morgan & Naoyuki Yoshino, 2023. "Financial literacy, behavioral traits, and ePayment adoption and usage in Japan," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-30, December.
    9. Marinelli, Nicoletta & Mazzoli, Camilla & Palmucci, Fabrizio, 2017. "How does gender really affect investment behavior?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 58-61.
    10. Tânia Saraiva & Tiago Cruz Gonçalves, 2022. "Should I Play or Should I Go? Individuals’ Characteristics and Preference for Uncertainty," Games, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-14, April.
    11. Czibor, Eszter & Claussen, Jörg & van Praag, Mirjam, 2019. "Women in a men’s world: Risk taking in an online card game community," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 62-89.
    12. Eunmi Kim & Sejoong Lee & Joonwhan David Lee, 2018. "Reaching Sustainable Financial Health: Gender Differences in Risk-Taking Patterns of Financially Excluded People," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-15, April.
    13. Grohmann, Antonia & Kouwenberg, Roy & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2015. "Childhood roots of financial literacy," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 114-133.
    14. Cziriak, Marius & Bucher-Koenen, Tabea & Alessie, Rob, 2024. "Beyond knowledge: Confidence and the gender gap in financial literacy," ZEW Discussion Papers 24-083, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    15. Kaustia, Markku & Conlin, Andrew & Luotonen, Niilo, 2023. "What drives stock market participation? The role of institutional, traditional, and behavioral factors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    16. Ngoc Duc Lang & Ha Mai Tran & Giang Tra Nguyen & Duc Hong Vo, 2024. "An Untapped Instrument in the Fight Against Poverty: The Impacts of Financial Literacy on Poverty Worldwide," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 174(2), pages 657-695, September.
    17. Andreas Oehler & Matthias Horn & Stefan Wendt, 2024. "Investment in risky assets and participation in the financial market: does financial literacy matter?," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 71(1), pages 19-45, March.
    18. Hsu, Yuan-Lin & Chen, Hung-Ling & Huang, Po-Kai & Lin, Wan-Yu, 2021. "Does financial literacy mitigate gender differences in investment behavioral bias?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    19. Duraj, Kamila & Grunow, Daniela & Chaliasos, Michael & Laudenbach, Christine & Siegel, Stephan, 2024. "Rethinking the stock market participation puzzle: A qualitative approach," IMFS Working Paper Series 210, Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS).
    20. Hu, Zihao & Zhang, Dong & Xiong, Xueping, 2024. "Navigating risk: Impact of overconfidence in financial literacy on retirement wealth reserves," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:109755. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.