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Risk aversion for decisions under uncertainty: Are there gender differences?

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  • Sarin, Rakesh
  • Wieland, Alice

Abstract

It has become well accepted that women are more risk averse than men. For objective probability gambles, typically used in eliciting risk aversion, we find women generally have a lower valuation than men, thus exhibiting greater risk aversion. This paper investigates whether this finding extends to decisions under uncertainty – where probabilities are not given and individuals may assign different probabilities to the same event (e.g. outcomes of award shows or sporting events).We find that for decisions under uncertainty, men and women value the bets similarly, both before and after controlling for participants' subjective probabilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarin, Rakesh & Wieland, Alice, 2016. "Risk aversion for decisions under uncertainty: Are there gender differences?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-8.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:60:y:2016:i:c:p:1-8
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2015.10.007
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