We relate risk attitudes and patience of young graduates from high-school, college and university, measured around the time that they start their labor market career in a large representative survey, to the riskiness and timing of earnings in the occupations they choose to work in. We find a...

Economists and psychologists have developed a variety of experimental methodologies to elicit and assess individual risk attitudes. Choosing which to utilize, however, is largely dependent on the question one wants to answer, as well as the characteristics of the sample population. The goal of...

Classic financial agency theory recommends compensation through stock options rather than shares to counteract excessive risk aversion in agents. In a setting where any kind of risk taking is suboptimal for shareholders, we show that excessive risk taking may occur for one of two reasons: risk...

Single-sex classes within coeducational environments are likely to modify students’ risk-taking attitudes in economically important ways. To test this, we designed a controlled experiment using first year college students who made choices over real-stakes lotteries at two distinct dates....

We study the relation between gender and stock holdings in Finland, a particularly gender equal country. We show that it is crucial to control for risk aversion using a measure of subjective risk-taking, rather than measures derived from abstract gambles. Controls related to financial knowledge...

We examine whether competitiveness in women is influenced by biological factors. Female participants in a laboratory experiment solve a simple arithmetics task first under a piece rate and then under a competitive tournament scheme. Participants can then choose which compensation scheme to apply...

We explore gender differences in preferences for competition and risk among children aged 9–12 in Colombia and Sweden, two countries differing in gender equality according to macro indices. We include four types of tasks that vary in gender stereotyping when looking at competitiveness:...

We analyze the prediction of risk preferences of others using an artefactual field experiment with financial professionals and students. For their prediction, the subjects receive information on multiple demographic characteristics and a self-assessment of risk taking of the target. When...