Some Men Invest Like Women: The Influence of Social Values on Investment Decisions and Investor Loyalty

Abstract

We use a novel method to ex ante determine investors’ decision making type. We collected unique data from two banks that offer socially responsible mutual funds to individuals, which is a useful context for our study. We find that in general, wealthy men mostly chase past returns or minimize management fees and women are more likely to be values-driven. However, we also find that one third of male investors are values-driven, have limited investment knowledge, largely ignore management fees and are very loyal to the bank. This is a significant group that has attractive characteristics for mutual fund families and consumer banks. Our results are similar for both banks, and hence robust.