Invest As I Say, Not As I Do? Gender Dif-ferences In Financial Risk Preferences

This paper examines gender differences in stated versus observed financial risk preferences.  The responses of women versus men to a question regarding financial risk preferences are compared to the proportion of risky assets held in their portfolios using data from the 1995 Survey of Consumer Finances. The data show that women are more likely to express an unwillingness to take financial risks.  Stated financial risk preferences are found to be consistent with observed risk preferences at the ordinal, but not the quantitative, level.  Contradicting their stated risk preferences, risky assets constitute, on average, one-third of the financial assets of households that indicate they are unwilling to take any financial risks. Financial planners and advisers frequently use a client’s expressed willingness to take on risk as an important determinant in asset allocation recommendations. Consistent gender differences in these responses, in addition to inconsistencies between the client’s stated risk preferences and observed portfolio allocation, may lead advisers to make inappropriate recommendations

Dual private pension households and the distribution of wealth in the United States

Using data from the 1998 Survey of Consumer Finances, this paper examines the impact of dual private pension households on the distribution of household wealth in the United States. This paper builds on three lines of previous research: inquiries into assortative mating , i.e., the tendency for people with similar characteristics to marry; studies emphasizing the importance of pensions as a component of household wealth; and recent research examining how wives earnings alter the distribution of household income. Evidence of assortative private pensions , i.e., the tendency for people with private pensions to be married to people with private pensions, is presented. Estimates of the expected value of private pension and social security wealth are added to measures of household non-retirement net worth to obtain the value household wealth. These data indicate that wives private pensions in dual private pension households contribute marginally to greater equality in the wealth distribution.

Determinants of intended bequests

SIGLEAvailable from Bibliothek des Instituts fuer Weltwirtschaft, ZBW, Duesternbrook Weg 120, D-24105 Kiel C 160979 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Family Financial Risk Taking When the Wife Earns More

Bargaining theory, Dual earners, Financial risk taking, Household decision making,