Theoretical models predict that overcon�dent investors trade excessively. We test this prediction by partitioning investors on gender. Psychological research demonstrates that, in areas such as �nance, men are more overcon�dent than women. Thus, theory predicts that men will trade more excessively than women. Using account data for over 35,000 households from a large discount brokerage, we analyze the common stock investments of men and women from February 1991 through January 1997. We document that men trade 45 percent more than women. Trading reduces men’s net returns by 2.65 percentage points a year as opposed to 1.72 percentage points for women. It’s not what a man don’t know that makes him a fool, but what he does know that ain’t so. Josh Billings, nineteenth century American humorist It is dif�cult to reconcile the volume of trading observed in equity markets with the trading needs of rational investors. Rational investors make periodic contributions and withdrawals

Women pursue education and careers in computer science far less frequently than men do. In 1990, only 13% of PhDs in computer science went to women, and only 7.8% of computer science professors were female. Additionally, the percentage of female computer science students appears to be increasing at only a slow rate or even decreasing. Apart from ethical concerns at women's lack of participation in computer science, the demographics of the country are such that the United States will not have enough engineers and scientists unless underrepresented groups increase their participation. This report examines the influences against a woman's pursuing a career in a technical field, particularly computer science. Such factors include the different ways in which boys and girls are raised, the stereotypes of female engineers, subtle biases that females face, problems resulting from working in predominantly male environments, and sexual biases in language. Finally, I discuss effective and ineffec...

The field of modern financial economics assumes that people behave with extreme rationality, but they do not. Furthermore, people’s deviations from rationality are often systematic. Behavioral finance relaxes the traditional assumptions of financial economics by incorporating these observable, systematic, and very human departures from rationality into standard models of financial markets. We highlight two common mistakes investors make: excessive trading and the tendency to disproportionately hold on to losing investments while selling winners. We argue that these systematic biases have their origins in human psychology. The tendency for human beings to be overconfident causes the first bias in investors, and the human desire to avoid regret prompts the second. There is one important caveat to the notion that we live in a new economy, and that is human psychology... which appears essentially immutable.

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In the spring of 1993, Dean Schowalter convened a committee to examine the status of women faculty and graduate students in the College of Engineering. This document contains the committee's final report and recommendations to the Dean.

Theoretical models predict that overconfident investors trade excessively. We test this prediction by partitioning investors on gender. Psychological research demonstrates that, in areas such as finance, men are more overconfident than women. Thus, theory predicts that men will trade more excessively than women. Using account data for over 35,000 households from a large discount brokerage, we analyze the common stock investments of men and women from February 1991 through January 1997. We document that men trade 45 percent more than women. Trading reduces men’s net returns by 2.65 percentage points a year as opposed to 1.72 percentage points for women. It's not what a man don't know that makes him a fool, but what he does know that ain't so. Josh Billings, 19 th century American humorist It is difficult to reconcile the volume of trading observed in equity markets with the trading needs of rational investors. Rational investors make periodic contributions and withdrawals from their investment portfolios, rebalance their portfolios, and trade to minimize their taxes. Those possessed of superior information may trade speculatively,

Thirty-three men and twenty-four women evaluated and rated the performance of two managers (a man and a woman) after the managers had made decisions based on information provided by the management accounting system. The experimental materials comprised two cases—one showing successful performance and the other, unsuccessful performance. It is hypothesised that both men and women raters will demonstrate a bias against the successful woman manager, that is, evaluate her more harshly compared with the successful male manager. No difference in performance evaluation is predicted between the unsuccessful female manager and the unsuccessful male manager. The results support the hypotheses. A second dependent variable measured the perceived benefit that was received from expenditure incurred in carrying out the managers ’ decisions. It is hypothesised that both men and women raters will demonstrate a bias against the successful woman manager, that is, perceive lower benefit from a woman-initiated decision relative to a man-initiated decision. No evidence of biases against the successful woman manager is observed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings. Keywords:

Decision making is one of the most important recurring responsibilities facing managers in organizations. Choices are called for on a regular basis with important consequences. To make a decision, the manager must choose among ways to deal with problems confronting an organization. The choice among these alternatives often makes irrevocable commitments. Once a decision is made, resources have been committed that are seldom recoverable should something go awry (Nutt, 1989, p. xiii).