IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/han/dpaper/dp-358.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Italian Asset Managers’ Behavior: Evidence on Overconfidence, Risk Taking and Gender

Author

Listed:
  • Beckmann, Daniela
  • Lütje, Torben
  • Rebeggiani, Luca

Abstract

This paper offers new insights into the Italian mutual fund industry. Surveying Italian professionals, we do not only reveal typical gender differences but also detect divergence to their German counterparts. While disclosing Italian professionals’ overly positive self-assessment in general, we find evidence for male overconfidence in particular though without being accompanied by excessive control illusion of the own information level. Asset managers’ risk taking reveals further differences: Italian female professionals do not only assess themselves as more risk averse than their male colleagues, they also prefer a more passive portfolio management compared to the level they are allowed to. Moreover, in a tournament scenario near the end of the investment period female asset managers do not try to become the ultimate top performer when they have outperformed their peer group so far. However, in case of underperformance, the risk of deviating from the benchmark makes especially female professionals willing to seize a chance of catching up. Overall, compared to their German counterparts, we find Italian asset managers to be slightly more risk averse. Matching bounded former results on Italian mutual funds, we discuss interdependencies as well as impact of our findings at the individual asset managers’ level on trading activity, management style and performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Beckmann, Daniela & Lütje, Torben & Rebeggiani, Luca, 2007. "Italian Asset Managers’ Behavior: Evidence on Overconfidence, Risk Taking and Gender," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-358, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    • Handle: RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-358
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://diskussionspapiere.wiwi.uni-hannover.de/pdf_bib/dp-358.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roberto Savona, 2006. "Do mutual funds styles reflect a country-specific investment philosophy? The Italian case," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 303-318.
    2. Luigi Guiso & Michael Haliassos & Tullio Jappelli, 2003. "Household stockholding in Europe: where do we stand and where do we go? [‘Limited market participation and volatility of assets prices’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 18(36), pages 123-170.
    3. Marie-Claire Villeval & Nabanita Datta Gupta & Anders Poulsen, 2005. "Male and Female Competitive Behavior - Experimental Evidence," Working Papers 0512, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    4. Chevalier, Judith & Ellison, Glenn, 1997. "Risk Taking by Mutual Funds as a Response to Incentives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(6), pages 1167-1200, December.
    5. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:5:p:1589-1622 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. David Hirshleifer, 2001. "Investor Psychology and Asset Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1533-1597, August.
    7. Nabanita Datta Gupta & Anders Poulsen & Marie Claire Villeval, 2005. "Male and Female Competitive Behavior: Experimental," Post-Print halshs-00175039, HAL.
    8. Cesari, Riccardo & Panetta, Fabio, 2002. "The performance of Italian equity funds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 99-126, January.
    9. Eva Sierminska & Andrea Brandolini & Timothy M Smeeding, 2007. "Comparing wealth distribution across rich countries: the Luxembourg Wealth Study project," IFC Bulletins chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Proceedings of the IFC Conference on "Measuring the financial position of the household sector", Basel, 30-31 August 2006 - Volume 1, volume 25, pages 297-310, Bank for International Settlements.
    10. Timothy Smeeding & Eva Sierminska & Andrea Brandolini, 2006. "Comparing Wealth Distribution across Rich Countries: First Results from the Luxembourg Wealth Study," LWS Working papers 1, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    11. Luigi Guiso & Michael Haliassos & Tullio Jappelli (ed.), 2003. "Stockholding in Europe," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-50267-3, December.
    12. Renate Schubert, 1999. "Financial Decision-Making: Are Women Really More Risk-Averse?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 381-385, May.
    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. 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.

    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. Becchetti, Leonardo & Degli Antoni, Giacomo & Ottone, Stefania & Solferino, Nazaria, 2013. "Allocation criteria under task performance: The gendered preference for protection," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 96-111.
    2. Alison L. Booth & Patrick Nolen, 2012. "Gender differences in risk behaviour: does nurture matter?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(558), pages 56-78, February.
    3. Nataliya Barasinska & Dorothea Schäfer, 2018. "Gender role asymmetry and stock market participation – evidence from four European household surveys," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(12), pages 1026-1046, August.
    4. Booth, Alison & Cardona-Sosa, Lina & Nolen, Patrick, 2014. "Gender differences in risk aversion: Do single-sex environments affect their development?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 126-154.
    5. Oleg Badunenko & Nataliya Barasinska & Dorothea Schäfer, 2009. "Risk Attitudes and Investment Decisions across European Countries: Are Women More Conservative Investors than Men?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 928, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    6. van Rooij, Maarten C.J. & Kool, Clemens J.M. & Prast, Henriette M., 2007. "Risk-return preferences in the pension domain: Are people able to choose?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(3-4), pages 701-722, April.
    7. Nataliya Barasinska & Dorothea Sch fer, 2013. "Financial risk taking, gender and social identity - Evidence from national surveys of household finance," LWS Working papers 15, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    8. van Rooij, Maarten C.J. & Kool, Clemens J.M. & Prast, Henriette M., 2007. "Risk-return preferences in the pension domain: Are people able to choose?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(3-4), pages 701-722, April.
    9. repec:diw:diwfin:diwfin06010 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Nataliya Barasinska & Dorothea Schäfer, 2013. "Is the Willingness to Take Financial Risk a Sex-Linked Trait?: Evidence from National Surveys of Household Finance," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1278, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Rachel Croson & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Gender Differences in Preferences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 448-474, June.
    12. Lee, Boram & Rosenthal, Leonard & Veld, Chris & Veld-Merkoulova, Yulia, 2015. "Stock market expectations and risk aversion of individual investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 122-131.
    13. Ken‐ichi Hashimoto & Ryonghun Im & Takuma Kunieda & Akihisa Shibata, 2022. "Asset bubbles, unemployment, and financial market frictions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(4), pages 1806-1832, October.
    14. Crowe, Christopher & Dell’Ariccia, Giovanni & Igan, Deniz & Rabanal, Pau, 2013. "How to deal with real estate booms: Lessons from country experiences," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 300-319.
    15. Andreasch Michael & Lindner Peter, 2016. "Micro- and Macrodata: a Comparison of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey with Financial Accounts in Austria," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 32(1), pages 1-28, March.
    16. Sandra E Black & Paul J Devereux & Petter Lundborg & Kaveh Majlesi, 2018. "Learning to Take Risks? The Effect of Education on Risk-Taking in Financial Markets," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(3), pages 951-975.
    17. Fabio C. Bagliano & Claudio Morana, 2011. "The Effects of the US Economic and Financial Crises on Euro Area Convergence," Chapters, in: Wim Meeusen (ed.), The Economic Crisis and European Integration, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Luigi Guiso & Tullio Jappelli, 2005. "Awareness and Stock Market Participation," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 9(4), pages 537-567.
    19. Ana C. Díaz†Mendoza & Germán López†Espinosa & Miguel A. Martínez, 2014. "The Efficiency of Performance†Based Fee Funds," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 20(4), pages 825-855, September.
    20. Booth, Alison & Nolen, Patrick, 2012. "Choosing to compete: How different are girls and boys?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 542-555.
    21. Jin, Fangyi, 2011. "Revisiting the composition puzzles of the household portfolio: New evidence," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 63-73, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Institutional investors; Gender; Overconfidence; Risk taking; Tournament behavior;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    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:han:dpaper:dp-358. 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: Heidrich, Christian (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fwhande.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.