Fearless Woman: Financial Literacy, Confidence, and Stock Market Participation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bucher-Koenen, Tabea; Alessie, Rob; Lusardi, Annamaria; van Rooij, Maarten
• 署名单位: University of Mannheim; Leibniz Association; Zentrum fur Europaische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW); University of Groningen; Stanford University; European Central Bank; European Central Bank; De Nederlandsche Bank NV
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2023.00425
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: financial knowledge; gender gap; measurement error; Financial behavior

摘要

Women are less financially literate than men, and it has been difficult to determine whether this gap reflects a lack of knowledge or, rather, a lack of confidence. To address this important research question, we designed two survey modules that enable us to calculate the extent to which confidence matters for both financial literacy and behavior. We developed and estimated a model that provides a new measure of financial literacy and disentangles confidence from knowledge. We find that confidence accounts for about 30% of the gender difference in financial literacy. Moreover, both financial knowledge and confidence are linked to stock market participation. We also provide researchers with a method to account for confidence in regressions.