Gender differences in saving and investing behaviors

Abstract

The current study aims at exploring whether there is gender difference in financial behavior among college students, and how the four factors of gender socialization theory, gender risk tolerance theory, gender information process and gender financial decision mak-ing affect their financial behavior. The sample collected from college students of university of Helsinki. By employing SPSS, the study tested four hypothesizes: H1: Male students have a high risk tolerance than female students H2: Primary financial social learning agents differ by gender in college students H3: Primary financial decision making differ by gender in college students H4: Male and female college students have different relationships between financial risk tolerance and primary financial social learning agents. The former three hypotheses were examined using cross tab Chi-square test and t independent test to figure out the difference of statistic significant. The last hypothesis was tested using multinomial logistical regression to seek relationships among multiple nominal variables. The study found that there was no significant difference of financial behaviors between male and female college students. By understanding the gender different behaviors, the paper is built on helping financial counselors to specify their groups of clients in order to assist them achieve financial wellbeing.