Gender Differences in Risk Aversion and Expected Retirement Benefits
Gender Differences in Risk Aversion and Expected Retirement Benefits
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风险规避和预期退休福利的性别差异
DOI：
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发表时间：
2007
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Mark McNaughton
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
John G. Watson;Mark McNaughton
女性通常被认为比男性更厌恶风险。控制年龄，收入和教育，这项研究探讨了性别对澳大利亚大学部门员工的养老金（退休）基金风险偏好的影响。调查结果表明，妇女比男子选择更保守的投资策略，收入较低（影响成员向其退休基金缴款的数额）是妇女预计退休福利较低的主要原因。让成员在其退休投资的风险水平中作出选择，应使男性和女性退休人员大大受益。人们越来越担心，许多退休人员在退休后将没有足够的资产来满足其预期的退休负债（特别是住房和保健）和生活方式的愿望（例如旅行）。这一担忧引发了相当多的公共政策辩论，并导致澳大利亚和其他地方的养老金基金（退休基金）进行重大改革。向退休计划供款的个人面临的一个重要决定（除了供款多少之外）是如何最好地投资供款以获得最大的长期利益。历史和理论都表明，高回报通常是以高风险为代价的;因此，从长远来看，选择承担较低风险的个人通常会获得较低的回报。大量经验证据表明，妇女比男子更不愿承担风险，因此，她们可能选择风险较低/回报较低的投资战略。研究还表明，由于女性在工作生涯中的收入通常低于男性，因此她们在退休时可能不那么富有。这些差异对男女不同退休福利的潜在影响，由于妇女的寿命通常较长，其退休福利必须在此期间分配，而且往往比男子退休早，因此更加复杂。本研究旨在从两个方面对现有文献作出贡献。首先，我们试图确定，在澳大利亚的情况下，女性是否确实比男性更厌恶风险，在他们的退休金投资的选择。这项研究还表明，与男子的退休福利相比，风险规避程度的提高（以及工作生活收入的差异）可能对妇女的退休福利产生潜在影响。我们使用的数据集是由退休基金UniSuper提供的，UniSuper是澳大利亚大学工作人员（学术和一般）在研究期间（1997年7月1日至2003年6月30日）的唯一退休基金提供商。当UniSuper开始允许会员选择他们的投资计划/策略时，所有现有会员（以及随后的新会员）都被要求从七个计划中选择一个计划，范围从现金投资到风险非常大的全股权计划。该数据集包含了在样本期内选择投资计划的32，061名成员的详细信息。在控制了年龄（与风险承担负相关）和收入（与风险承担正相关）后，我们发现平均男性和女性UniSuper成员的投资选择差异具有统计学意义，但差异对预期退休福利的美元影响很小（从30岁到65岁的35年期间总计约16，000澳元）。对预期退休福利更重要的是男女平均收入的差异（以及退休金缴款）。这种差异导致平均男性UniSuper成员在65岁时的预期退休福利比平均女性多出近195，000澳元。此外，我们发现，男性和女性UniSuper成员的平均预期养老金投资回报率大幅提高，因为成员可以选择投资策略，而不是在以前的计划中没有选择。
Women are generally considered more risk averse than men. Controlling for age, income, and education, this study examined the impact of gender on the superannuation (retirement) fund risk preferences of staff in the Australian university sector. The findings suggest that women choose more conservative investment strategies than men and that lower income (which affects the amount members contribute to their superannuation funds) is the primary contributor to the lower projected retirement benefits of women. Providing members with a choice among risk levels in their retirement investments should significantly benefit male and female retirees. Concern has been growing that many retirees will have insufficient assets in retirement to meet their expected retirement liabilities (in particular, housing and health care) and life-style desires (for example, travel). This concern has fuelled considerable public policy debate and has led to significant superannuation fund (retirement fund) reforms in Australia and elsewhere. An important decision facing an individual contributing to a retirement plan (in addition to how much to contribute) is how best to invest the contributions to derive the maximum long-term benefit. As both history and theory advise, higher returns generally come at the cost of higher risks; therefore, individuals who choose to bear lower risk will generally earn lower returns—in the long run. Considerable empirical evidence suggests that women are more risk averse than men and are, therefore, likely to choose lower risk/lower return investment strategies. Research also suggests that women, because they usually earn less than men over their working lives, are likely to be less wealthy when they retire. The potential effects of these differences on the differential retirement benefits of men and women is compounded by the fact that women typically have longer life spans over which their retirement benefits must be allocated and also tend to retire earlier than men. This study aims to contribute to the existing literature in two ways. First, we sought to determine, in the Australian context, whether women are indeed more risk averse than men in their choices of superannuation investments. This study also illustrates the potential impact that increased risk aversion (and differences in working-life income) is likely to have on the retirement benefits of women compared with the benefits available to men. The dataset we used was provided by the superannuation fund UniSuper, the sole superannuation fund provider for staff (academic and general) at Australian universities during the period of the study, 1 July 1997 to 30 June 2003. When UniSuper began allowing members to choose their investment plans/strategies, all existing members (and, subsequently, new members) were asked to select a plan from among seven ranging from a cash investment to a very risky all-equity plan. The dataset contained details on 32,061 members who had selected an investment plan in the sample period. After controlling for age (negatively related to risk taking) and income (positively related to risk taking), we found the differences in investment choices of the average male and female UniSuper member to be statistically significant, but the dollar impact of the difference on expected retirement benefits was small (approximately AU$16,000 in total over a 35-year period from age 30 to age 65). Of far greater importance for expected retirement benefits was the difference in the average incomes (and thus superannuation contributions) of the men and women. This difference resulted in the average male UniSuper member having almost AU$195,000 more in expected retirement benefits at age 65 than the average female. Furthermore, we found that the average expected superannuation investment return for both male and female UniSuper members has been substantially greater since members have been given a choice of investment strategy than it was under the previous scheme in which no choice was available.