Differences In Risk Tolerance Research Articles

Violence against women, innate preferences and financial inclusion

We examine the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on the decision of low-income women to enter formal financial markets by opening a bank account. Additionally, we investigate potential behavioral explanations for the connection between IPV and account-opening decisions. In laboratory experiments conducted in rural Bangladesh, we find that victims of IPV tend to be more risk tolerant and impatient compared to others. When given the option to open a bank account without fees, women who experienced IPV in the past 12 months are less likely to do so than those who did not experience such violence. A path analysis reveals that differences in risk tolerance and impatience mediate the relationship between IPV exposure and financial exclusion. Essentially, our findings indicate that exposure to IPV increases risk tolerance and impatience in women, which in turn discourages them from opening a savings account.

Cardio-Oncology Awareness: A multidisciplinary survey amongst health care trainees and practicing professionals at academic institutions.

e24023 Background: The awareness of cancer therapy-related adverse cardiac effects is incited by recent literature on cardiotoxicity incidence and detection strategies. Despite availability of guidelines, cardiotoxicity monitoring and treatment are not structurally performed across institutions. Aim: Assessing knowledge of health care professionals’ cardiac complications of cancer treatments, current perspectives on cardio-oncology ultimately to determine an agenda for improvements in practice. Methods: A web-based survey (Google Forms) was adapted from that of Ottawa Hospital Research Institute’s survey, consisting of 45 questions organized into 7 sections, modified according to our local needs and circulated to cardiologists, oncologists (radiation, medical) practicing or training in a multi-disciplinary setup and academic centers. Fortnightly reminders were sent for to receive a maximum response. The survey enquired about implementing respondent’s perception of cardio-oncology, availability of cardio-oncology services at the respondent’s institution, opinions towards current practice. A descriptive statistical analysis was carried out. Results: Fifty-five professionals completed the survey, of which 12 were cardiologists, 31 radiation oncologists, and 12 medical oncologists. Majority, 31 (54.5%) were trainees and only 1.8% had some formal training in cardio-oncology while 20% respondents reported to have a formal cardio-oncology training programme. Nearly 90% understood cardio-oncology as a stream to be able to identify side-effects and refer for treatment to the cardiologists while 84% felt that timely referral would improve outcomes.72% recognized follow-up and 67.3% felt patient education to be important component. Awareness of cardio-oncology guidelines was reported by 38.2% respondents. In the setting of metastatic cancer, there was a difference in risk tolerance for cardiotoxicity with the majority accepting 1-5% risk in curative setting and 56% accepting > 5% risk of cardiotoxicity in the metastatic setting. None of the institutions reported on having a formal training programme. Limited infrastructure (54.5%) and limited interest (47.3%) were cited the most common reasons. Conclusions: This survey identified that professionals recognize cardio-oncology services to be an important component of cancer treatment. Lack of formal training and awareness about guidelines was reported. There is a felt need for collaboration between cardiologists and oncologists to improve cardiovascular outcomes of cancer patients.

Comparative Study on the Stratification of Education between Urban and Rural Areas in China

Comparative Study on the Stratification of Education between Urban and Rural Areas in China

Disparities in DMT treatment: Demographic and neurocognitive differences between MS patients currently treated versus not treated with disease-modifying therapies

BackgroundCurrent treatment guidelines recommend consideration of disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for all multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, but barriers to access have begun to be identified. In particular, prior studies have found that people with higher education have better access to DMTs, perhaps explained by the association of higher education with higher income. And while the majority of people with MS are women, being male is also associated with higher income. These factors argue for the need to better understand whether there are differences in DMT uptake based on sex and education. Finally, in addition to well-documented benefits of DMTs for slowing disease progression, there is growing evidence to suggest benefits of DMTs for cognitive functioning. ObjectiveDetermine whether rates of DMT treatment differ based on education and sex. Secondarily, we investigate whether neurocognitive test performance differs in treated versus not treated groups. MethodsIn cross-sectional data, mixed effects linear regression evaluated differences in education and sex of those treated versus not treated with DMTs. Models included the following predictors: age, disease duration, MS subtype, sex/education, disability, atrophy, and T2 lesion volume. Propensity score weights were extracted to obtain unbiased estimates of the relationship between DMT status and each outcome of interest. The same models evaluated performance differences between groups on an iPad-based processing speed test (PST) and manual dexterity test (MDT). ResultsControlling for covariates, individuals with less education (OR=1.09, 95 % CI=[1.03, 1.14], p = 0.003) and women (OR=0.80, 95 % CI=[0.72, 0.90], p < 0.001) were less likely to be currently treated with DMTs. Small effect size association was shown for DMT treatment with better performance on PST (beta=0.09, CI=[0.06, 0.13], p < 0.001) and MDT (beta=0.05, CI=[0.01,0.08], p = 0.011). ConclusionsWomen and people with lower education had a lower likelihood of being currently treated with DMTs. After controlling for all relevant variables, an independent (small) association of DMT treatment to better performance on tests of processing speed and fine motor dexterity was found. Reasons for disparities remain to be investigated in future work, and may include employment status, health insurance coverage, or sex differences in risk tolerance.

Gender differences in CEO risk tolerance: A look at fixed pay

The number of female Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in the United States has increased significantly over the past two decades. Using a sample that includes this greater representation of female CEOs, we revisit whether CEO compensation packages reflect the standard agency theoretical prediction that CEOs who are more (less) risk-averse should be incentivized to take on greater (less) risk. Our findings are at odds with these predictions, as we provide evidence that the well-documented gender difference in risk tolerance among CEOs is reflected in their compensation packages. While total CEO compensation is roughly equal between men and women, female CEOs earn significantly higher salaries, especially at larger firms.

OVERCOMING LIMITS IN JOINT VENTURE AGREEMENTS FOR SUCCESS IN THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

Joint endeavor arrangements have turned into a famous way for organizations to share the expenses and dangers related with investigation and creation in the oil and gas industry. However, there are limitations to these partnerships that could prevent them from succeeding, such as disagreements regarding project management, differences in risk tolerance, cultural differences, and restrictions imposed by laws and regulations. Companies should take steps like establishing a governance structure, defining clear goals and objectives, conducting due diligence, creating a risk management plan, investing in relationship building, and seeking legal and regulatory advice to overcome these limitations.

Identifying optimal capacity expansion and differentiated capacity payments under risk aversion and market power: A financial Stackelberg game approach

We investigate how capacity payments in combination with scarcity pricing of energy can ensure resource adequacy in electricity markets, defined as the ability of supply and other resources to provide enough energy and capacity to meet demand under steady-state operating conditions. This work generalizes models for determining capacity payments by deriving second-best discriminatory payments by resource type that account not only for the “missing money” market failure that arises from energy price caps, but also for market power in the capacity market and differences in risk tolerance among resource types that can arise from failures in risk and capital markets. A bi-level equilibrium-constrained optimization model is proposed to define second-best capacity payments in a static long-run setting, considering the impacts of those payments on the mix and cost of generation investment and energy outputs. The lower-level suppliers play a Nash game to determine the generation mix under a capacity payment scheme, while the upper-level regulator considers consumer welfare and resource adequacy. We introduce an equivalent formulation via a variational inequality approach, and find conditions for the solution to exist. Discriminatory payments are found to be second-best when there are market power in the investment game, price caps in energy markets and imperfections in risk markets that lead to diverse risk attitudes.

Cerebellum anatomy predicts individual risk-taking behavior and risk tolerance

Human risk tolerance is highly idiosyncratic and individuals often show distinctive preferences when faced with similar risky situations. However, the neural underpinnings of individual differences in risk-taking remain unclear. Here we combined structural and perfusion MRI and examined the associations between brain anatomy and individual risk-taking behavior/risk tolerance in a sample of 115 healthy participants during the Balloon Analogue Risk Task, a well-established sequential risky decision paradigm. Both whole brain and region-of-interest analyses showed that the left cerebellum gray matter volume (GMV) has a strong association with individual risk-taking behavior and risk tolerance, outperforming the previously reported associations with the amygdala and right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) GMV. Left cerebellum GMV also accounted for risk tolerance and risk-taking behavior changes with aging. However, regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) provided no additional predictive power. These findings suggest a novel cerebellar anatomical contribution to individual differences in risk tolerance. Further studies are necessary to elucidate the underestimated important role of cerebellum in risk-taking.

Personal characteristics and risk tolerance in a natural experiment

PurposeThis paper examines students' decisions when playing an in-class version of the TV game, Deal or No Deal (DOND), to study the relation between personal characteristics and individual decision-making under risk.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes DOND game play data collected from 374 students in 13 university finance classes, and their personal characteristics collected in a post-game survey. It uses ordered probit, OLS and probit regression analysis to examine the impact of personal characteristics on an individual's risk tolerance.FindingsThe key finding is that international students are significantly more risk averse than US domestic students. Additionally, given the natural control for age and education, the study finds that gender, race and religion have a limited impact on an individual's risk tolerance. Finally, the study provides evidence that the structure of the DOND game, in general, rewards risk-taking as long as it is not excessive. Once participant behavior becomes risk-seeking, the correlation between risk-taking and game payoff becomes negative.Research limitations/implicationsThe homogeneous set of contestants (business students) analyzed in this study presents some limitations yet provides opportunities to examine risk tolerance differences between the US and international students, and whether gender, race or religious affiliation has an impact on the level of risk tolerance given a natural control for age and education level.Practical implicationsThe evidence suggests that culture and environmental unfamiliarity may impact an individual's risk tolerance. This finding is useful when providing financial advice to diverse clients or when conducting international business. Additionally, understanding that education and financial literacy reduces differences in risk tolerance across gender, race and religion can impact the way we interact with others. A broader practical implication for all investors is that, while under normal circumstances, risk-taking is rewarded with a higher expected return, excessive risk-taking may harm their investment performance.Originality/valueThis paper utilizes a unique data set, collected through a class activity and post-class survey. While there have been empirical studies using DOND data, this is the first study that examines the impact of personal characteristics on game participants' behavior, thereby generating unique findings not reported in previous studies employing DOND data.

Risk perception and tolerance shape variation in agricultural use for a transboundary elephant population.

To conserve wide-ranging species in human-modified landscapes, it is essential to understand how animals selectively use or avoid cultivated areas. Use of agriculture leads to human-wildlife conflict, but evidence suggests that individuals may differ in their tendency to be involved in conflict. This is particularly relevant to wild elephant populations. We analysed GPS data of 66 free-ranging elephants in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem to quantify their use of agriculture. We then examined factors influencing the level of agricultural use, individual change in use across years and differences in activity budgets associated with use. Using clustering methods, our data grouped into four agricultural use tactics: rare (<0.6% time in agriculture; 26% of population), sporadic (0.6%-3.8%; 34%), seasonal (3.9%-12.8%; 31%) and habitual (>12.8%; 9%). Sporadic and seasonal individuals represented two-thirds (67%) of recorded GPS fixes in agriculture, compared to 32% from habitual individuals. Increased agricultural use was associated with higher daily distance travelled and larger home range size, but not with age or sex. Individual tactic change was prevalent and the habitual tactic was maintained in consecutive years by only five elephants. Across tactics, individuals switched from diurnal to nocturnal activity during agricultural use, interpreted as representing similar risk perception of cultivated areas. Conversely, tactic choice appeared to be associated with differences in risk tolerance between individuals. Together, our results suggest that elephants are balancing the costs and benefits of crop usage at both fine (e.g. crop raid events) and long (e.g. yearly tactic change) temporal scales. The high proportion of sporadic and seasonal tactics also highlights the importance of mitigation strategies that address conflict arising from many animals, rather than targeted management of habitual crop raiders. Our approach can be applied to other species and systems to characterize individual variation in human resource use and inform mitigations for human-wildlife coexistence.

Cognitive Functioning: An Underlying Mechanism of Age and Gender Differences in Self-Assessed Risk Tolerance among an Aging Population

Attitude toward risk plays a vital role in an individual’s financial decision-making and well-being. Past studies have found significant association of age and gender with risk tolerance. However, studies on the factors affecting the underlying mechanism are scant. The purpose of this research is to test whether cognitive functioning mediates the association between age, gender, and self-assessed risk tolerance. Using the 2014 wave of the Health and Retirement Study, path analysis was conducted to test the hypothesized model. Results revealed a negative direct association between age and risk tolerance. Moreover, the study also found a lower level of risk tolerance in women. A bootstrap-based confidence interval revealed that a significant portion of the relationship between age and risk tolerance was mediated by cognition. However, the gender difference in risk tolerance was not explained by cognition. Financial planning practitioners and policymakers should understand the contribution of cognitive functioning toward the difference in risk tolerance in older populations and implement strategies to reinforce cognitive functioning to mitigate the adversity of a low level of risk tolerance.

An international survey of healthcare providers\u2019 knowledge of cardiac complications of cancer treatments

BackgroundCardio-oncology is a young sub-specialty that addresses the needs of cancer patients at risk of, or who have experienced cancer therapy related cardiac dysfunction (CTRCD). This study assessed clinicians’ understanding of cardio-oncology, opinions towards current practice, and approach to diagnosing and managing CTRCD.MethodsA 45-question survey was administered online via Survey Monkey and WeChat to health care providers (HCPs) comprising of cardiologists, oncologists, and others from September 2017 to March 2018. Implementation of the survey followed a modified Dillman’s Total Design Method.ResultsIn total, 160 responses were collected from 22 countries; majority were from cardiologists (53.8%) and oncologists (32.5%). The remaining 13.7% identified themselves as “others,” including general internists, cardio-oncologists, pediatric oncologists, radiation oncologists, cardiac rehabilitation therapists, nurse practitioners, research students, and pharmacists. In the setting of metastatic cancer, there was a difference in risk tolerance for cardiotoxicity between subspecialties. In this case, more cardiologists (36.7%) accepted a 5–10% risk of cardiotoxicity compared to oncologists (20.0%). Majority of cardiologists felt that cardiotoxicity should be monitored, even in asymptomatic cancer patients (55.8%). Only 12% of oncologists selected this response. In contrast, 50.0% of oncologists reported that cardiologists should be involved only when patients develop cardiotoxicity. In comparison, 6.5% of cardiologists selected this response. Majority of cardiologists stated that cardio-oncology clinics would significantly improve cancer patients’ prognosis (88.3%); only 45.8% of oncologists shared this opinion. Of all respondents, 66.9% stated they were familiar with a variety of international guidelines for managing cardiotoxicity. Of all oncologists, 65.3% indicated that they referred to these guidelines for clinical decision making.ConclusionsDespite the growth of cardio-oncology clinics, there are significant knowledge gaps regarding prevention and treatment strategies for CTRCD among health care providers. Knowledge translation from guidelines and collaboration between cardiologists and oncologists are needed to improve cardiovascular outcomes of cancer patients.

Personality Traits and Risk Tolerance among Young Investors

India is a developing nation with highest number of youths in world. The youth is growing in the era of internet, least fare Wi-Fi connections. They have ample of knowledge available at one click. For any decision they search multiple options which give them sense that they are opting for the best and will reduce the chances of setbacks. Although every individual vary in their risk taking capacity and the capacity to tolerate setbacks is mostly related to kind of personality characteristics an individual carry. Present study is an attempt to identify the kind of relationship between personality types in (BIG Five model) and risk tolerance among youth. There are five personality traits measured through BIG Five namely; Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism (Emotional Instability) and Openness to Experience. The study intended to ask whether these personality types play an important role in deciding tolerance behavior among young investors. The data was collected on a five point scale for all five personality traits. Each trait was evaluated through five statements on a scale developed by Mayfield, Perdue &amp; Wooten (2008) modified by Wong, Chuah, Kui, Soo &amp; Ang (2016). There were 25 statements in totality for measuring personality traits. The data was collected for risk tolerance, inclusive of eight items developed by Grable and Lytton (1999). There were 102 respondents from whom data was collected. The sampling respondents were in the age range of 22 to 27 years, who either have just started earning or having less than 5 years of total earning tenure. These investors are considered a bit selective but high in risk tolerance. We also intend to find out the kind of relationship between variables. Results indicated that Agreeableness, Neuroticism and Openness were strongly correlated to risk tolerance, but there was no significant relationship of extraversion and conscientiousness with risk tolerance. Furthermore, risk tolerance was checked on the basis of gender. The results indicated that there was no difference in risk tolerance of male and female investors unlikely suggested by Mishra, Lalumiere &amp; William (2011) who stated that risk propensity varies from male to female.

Gender differences, risk attitude and entrepreneurship in Kyrgyzstan

This study analyses the role of risk attitude for entrepreneurship by gender differences in Kyrgyzstan. Logit analysis is applied to the cross-sectional data set drawn from the nationally representative survey for 2011. Entrepreneurship is measured by the self-employment activities and analysed by the agricultural and non-agricultural sample. Results of the study show that more risk-taking preferences are associated with higher entrepreneurship probability. However, this effect is not persistent for women in further estimations for non-agricultural entrepreneurship sample, while for men higher positive effect of risk loving behavior remains in off-farm self-employment too. These findings underline the existing difference in risk tolerance by gender in non-agricultural employment. Movement of women from farm to off-farm entrepreneurship may not necessarily require risk loving characteristics. However, further analysis of this difference should take into account potential difference of necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs by gender.

The Effect of Demographic Characteristics on an Individual’s Financial Risk Tolerance

This study was designed to build a comprehensive model of financial risk tolerance (FRT) using a number of demographic variables from a large, nationally representative dataset, the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) 2016. Linear regression was used to confirm relationships between income, education, financial knowledge, age, marital status, employment status, and race/ethnicity with subjective FRT. All seven variables were found to be significant determinants of FRT, with income, education, and financial knowledge showing positive relationships and age showing a negative relationship. Effects of marital status, employment status, and race/ethnicity varied with the specific measure of subjective FRT used, but generally single males were found to be more risk tolerant than married couples and single females, the self-employed demonstrate higher risk tolerances than those who are employed by someone else or not employed, and there are significant but inconsistent differences in risk tolerance between whites, blacks/African Americans, and Hispanics/Latinos. This study evaluates both the traditional measure of FRT collected by the SCF and the new measure introduced in the 2016 survey year, and I conclude that even within a single survey, subjective measures of FRT are inconsistent.

Household Financial Risk Tolerance in Europe

This study examines the differences in household financial risk tolerance across the Eurozone countries and over time. Using the HFCS data, household subjective financial risk tolerance, stock ownership, and mutual fund ownership are all found to be increasing with household income, wealth, education, and home-ownership. Younger households are found to be more willing to take financial risks while at the same time being less likely to hold any investments into the stock markets. Using propensity score matching, the differences in risk tolerance between Southern and Northern European households remain statistically significant, suggesting that institutions play a significant role in explaining the level differences. As these institutional differences are highly persistent over time, macroeconomic conditions matter a lot in explaining the time variation in risk tolerance. In a strictly balanced German PHF, the changes in household's willingness to take financial risk over time are found to correlate positively with changes in household income and negatively to changes in financial literacy. Changes in home-ownership status are found to have a negative relation to changes in stock ownership, in line with the crowding-out hypothesis.

Amygdala Functional and Structural Connectivity Predicts Individual Risk Tolerance

Risk tolerance, the degree to which an individual is willing to tolerate risk in order to achieve a greater expected return, influences a variety of financial choices and health behaviors. Here we identify intrinsic neural markers for risk tolerance in a large (n= 108) multimodal imaging dataset of healthy young adults, which includes anatomical and resting-state functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging. Using a data-driven approach, we found that higher risk tolerance was most strongly associated with greater global functional connectivity (node strength) of and greater gray matter volume in bilateral amygdala. Further, risk tolerance was positively associated with functional connectivity between amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex and negatively associated with structural connectivity between these regions. These findings show how the intrinsic functional and structural architecture of the amygdala, and amygdala-medial prefrontal pathways, which have previously been implicated in anxiety, are linked to individual differences in risk tolerance during economic decision making.

Sex differences in the use of social information emerge under conditions of risk.

Social learning provides an effective route to gaining up-to-date information, particularly when information is costly to obtain asocially. Theoretical work predicts that the willingness to switch between using asocial and social sources of information will vary between individuals according to their risk tolerance. We tested the prediction that, where there are sex differences in risk tolerance, altering the variance of the payoffs of using asocial and social information differentially influences the probability of social information use by sex. In a computer-based task that involved building a virtual spaceship, men and women (N = 88) were given the option of using either asocial or social sources of information to improve their performance. When the asocial option was risky (i.e., the participant’s score could markedly increase or decrease) and the social option was safe (i.e., their score could slightly increase or remain the same), women, but not men, were more likely to use the social option than the asocial option. In all other conditions, both women and men preferentially used the asocial option to a similar degree. We therefore found both a sex difference in risk aversion and a sex difference in the preference for social information when relying on asocial information was risky, consistent with the hypothesis that levels of risk-aversion influence the use of social information.

Gender, risk tolerance, and false consensus in asset allocation recommendations

Abstract We study the impact of gender on asset allocation recommendations. Graduate business students and professional wealth managers are randomly assigned a male or female client. Participants recommend an allocation and choose an allocation for themselves. Male students choose a riskier allocation than female students, consistent with existing evidence of a gender difference in risk tolerance, and recommend a riskier allocation. In contrast, male and female wealth managers choose and recommend the same allocation, indicating that male and female finance professionals feature similar risk preferences. In both samples, a subject's allocation choice is the strongest predictor of the recommendation provided.

Gender, Risk Tolerance, and False Consensus in Asset Allocation Recommendations

We study the impact of gender on asset allocation recommendations. Graduate business students and professional wealth managers are randomly assigned a male or female client. Participants recommend an allocation and choose an allocation for themselves. Male students choose a riskier allocation than female students, consistent with existing evidence of a gender difference in risk tolerance, and recommend a riskier allocation. In contrast, male and female wealth managers choose and recommend the same allocation, indicating that male and female finance professionals feature similar risk preferences. In both samples, a subject’s allocation choice is the strongest predictor of the recommendation provided.