What Drives Men to Take Bigger Risks?

In Japan, women typically handle the family finances. I’m starting to think that this is a good idea.

Economists have known for a long time that men, on average, are more risk-tolerant than women. In 2009, Rachel Croson of the University of Texas-Dallas and Uri Gneezy of the University of California-San Diego reviewed the literature on the topic, and found that this gender difference pops up again and again, everywhere we look. When researchers give experimental subjects real opportunities for risk-taking, men tend to be less cautious. When they ask hypothetical questions about gambling decisions, men tend to take more risks. When they look at people’s pension-plan allocation decisions, they find that men tend to put more of their money into risky assets. Although there is the occasional study finding specific situations where the difference goes away, the vast weight of evidence says that the gender difference -- on average -- is real.