Abstract

In 1995, 40 percent of working men and 32 percent of working women were covered by a defined contribution (DC) plan. A distinguishing characteristic of these plans is that workers can generally choose how their assets are invested. Using data from the 1992 and 1995 Surveys of Consumer Finances (SCF), this paper examines if workers differ systematically by gender in the allocation of assets in DC plans. Previous researchers have reported that many workers tend to invest their retirement assets too conservatively, and in particular that women are less likely than men to invest in risky assets such as stocks. In the presence of an equity premium, a lower propensity by women to invest in stocks could translate into large differences in the accumulation of financial wealth for retirement. We establish that gender differences in investment decisions exist, though they are more complicated than previous studies have suggested. We show that these differences are not completely explained by differences in individual or household characteristics. A few studies have examined gender differences in investment

Citations