Gender Differences in Risk Attitudes: An Analysis of the Swedish Premium Pension System

Abstract

This thesis examines gender differences in investment behavior within the Swedish Premium Pension System for the years 2015-2022. The thesis uses the pension system as a case study to identify possible differences in risk attitude, factors that affect and whether gender has an impact on the level of home bias in investment decisions. Different risk measures are used to formulate equations used in the empirical analysis. Regressions were performed on all research year both pooled and separately; the results gave in general significant evidence of women being more risk-averse than men and that women exhibit home biasness to a greater extent than men. This thesis concludes that men and women differ in investment strategy, a difference explained by theories such as behavioral finance, home biasness and risk-awareness.