The Gender Wealth Gap: Participation in Financial Markets

Differences in wealth accumulation are driven not only by differences in income, but also by differences in the returns to the asset classes to which savings are allocated. Differences in asset allocation across households are large and vary considerably along the wealth distribution and by gender. A striking finding in household finance research is the low participation of women in capital markets, especially in Germany. This cannot be explained by high relative risk aversion. Stock market participation is particularly low among women, who are also more financially vulnerable than men. In a project funded by the Leibniz Program for Women Professors, Christine Laudenbach investigates the causes for the low participation of women in capital markets and uses these findings to test ways to overcome causes that are not motivated by differences in (risk) preferences, but by knowledge gaps and confidence, misperceptions or behavioral errors.
Project Leader: Christine Laudenbach
Project duration: 5 years