Risk preference among students with different educational backgrounds and the effect of the Covid-19 market decline

Abstract

In this thesis, differences in students risk preferences within different educational groups mainly within business and economics has been analyzed with regards to the impact of the Covid-19 market crash. The research is based on a questionnaire sent out to primarily the University of Gothenburg with focus on students enrolled in some economy related class. The gathered data classified students to four different main groups: Economics, Business, Finance and Other. More specifically, Finance students have been affected by the pandemic by taking on more risk whilst students from the group Other have moved towards the other direction. The groups Economics and Business have seen slight changes, Business students have moved slightly towards a riskier approach whilst Economics have not moved in a certain direction. Based on this research, our result shows that no clear conclusion can be drawn that risk preferences differ between students with different educational backgrounds. However, a connection can be drawn that a drastic and volatile period such as the Covid-19 market crash has had an impact on changes students' risk preferences within different educational groups.