Influence of Gender on Behavioural Biases in Financial Decisionmaking

Financial decision-making by consumers involves the allocation of financial resources in savings, debt repayment, budgeting, and investments. Behavioural biases of overconfidence and risk aversion lead to suboptimal decisions with lower-than-expected returns in financial markets, particularly for investment decisions. Women have been generally considered more risk-averse and less overconfident than men, often attributed to biological and psychological factors. However, recent studies show weak causal relations between biological gender traits and different levels of behavioural biases between men and women.