A Reconsideration of Gender Differences in Risk Attitudes
Management Science
We run an extensive meta-analysis of elicited risk attitudes in experimental economics, looking at the difference by gender. Focusing on the Holt & Laury task, we find that gender differences, far from being large and ubiquitous, are small in magnitude and not often observed.
Abstract
This paper reconsiders the wide agreement that females are more risk averse than males. We survey the existing experimental literature, finding that significance and magnitude of gender differences are task specific. We gather data from 54 replications of the Holt and Laury risk elicitation method, involving about 7,000 subjects. Gender differences appear in less than 10% of the studies and are significant but negligible in magnitude once all the data are pooled. Results are confirmed by structural estimations, which also support a constant relative risk aversion representation of preferences. Gender differences correlate with the presence of a safe option and fixed probabilities in the elicitation method.