Gender Dıfferences in  Perceptıon of Macroeconomıc Indıcators

Dilek Teker; Meltem Kiygi-Calli

Dilek Teker Professor, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Business Administration, Işık University, Şile Campus, 34980, Istanbul, Turkey.
Meltem Kiygi-Calli Assistant Professor, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Business Administration, Okan University, Tuzla Campus, 34959, Istanbul, Turkey.

Keywords: Gender Difference, Macroeconomic Perceptions, Kolmogorov Smirnov Test, Chi-Square Test, Risk Aversion.

Abstract

This paper examines if there exist gender differences in macroeconomic expectations. Two surveys were implemented in Turkey’s leading CEOs, CFOs, economists, portfolio managers, strategists and academics. One of the survey was conducted in 2013 while the other was in 2014. The survey points out if there are significant differences in expectations among women and men. The survey asks the participant’s macroeconomic expectations. Mainly, inflation, exchange rate, loan interest rate, stock-exchange rate, export and sector-specific expectations are investigated. Response to expectation questions is given on an ordinal scale with three levels. In the survey, a 3-point Likert scale response was used for the questions of export and sector-specific expectations. Firstly, the normality of the observations was tested with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Then, the differences in macroeconomic expectations of males and females were tested with the Chi-square test of independence. Although the empirical findings of each survey indicate different outputs, the general result mainly exhibits that women are more risk averse than men.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Anselmi, D.L., Law, A.L.: Questions of Gender. McGraw Hill, New York (1998)

Arano, K., Parker, C., and Terry, R. (2010). Gender-Based Risk Aversion and Retirement Asset Allocation. Economic Inquiry, 48(1), 147-155. Doi:10.1111/J.1465-7295.2008.00201.X

Bajtelsmit, Vickie L., Alexandra Bernasek, and Nancy A. Jianakoplos. "Gender Differences in Defined Con- tribution Pension Decisions." Financial Services Review8 (1999): 1-10.

Batjelsmit, Vickie L., and Jack A. VanDerhei. "Risk Aversion and Retirement Income Adequacy." In Posi- tioning Pensions for the Twenty-first Century, edited by M. S. Gordon, 0. S. Mitchell, and M. M. Twinney. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, 45-66.

Bernasek A. and Shwiff S. (2001). Gender, Risk, and Retirement, Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 35, No. 2. pp. 345-356

Bliss, R.T., Porter, M.E.: Mutual fund managers: does gender matter? J. Bus. Econ. Stud. 8(1), 1–15 (2002).

Brad M. Barber B. M. and Odean T. (2001). Boys Will be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, and Common Stock Investment The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 116, No. 1 pp. 261-292

Buss, D.: Sex differences in human mate preferences: evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures. Behav. Brain Sci. 12, 1–49 (1989)

Buss, D.: The evolution of desire: strategies of human mating. Basic Books, New York (1994)

C.C. Eckel C. C. and, Grossman P. J. (2002). Sex differences and statistical stereotyping in attitudes toward financial risk, Evolution and Human Behavior 23 (2002) 281–295.

Chen, J. (2010). Gender difference and job replacement for mutual fund. Quality & Quantity, 44(4), 661-671. doi:10.1007/s11135-009-9228-9.

Cifter, A. and Teker, D.: Gender differences in macroeconomic expectations: evidence from Turkey. Qual Quant. 47, 1793–1801 (2013).

Colleen, C.D., Gordon, R.M., Smart, C.: Further evidence on the role of gender in financial performance. J. Small Bus. Manag. 42(4), 395–417 (2004).

Deaux, K.: Sex and gender. Ann. Rev. Psychol. 36, 49–81 (1985)

Eagly, A.H., Steffen, V.J.: Gender stereotypes stem from the distribution of women and men into social roles. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 46, 735–754 (1984).

Estes R, Hosseini J. (1988). The Gender Gap on Wall Street: An Empirical Analysis of Confidence in Investment Decision Making. Journal Of Psychology;122(6):577.

Flynn, J., Slovic, P., & Mertz, C. K. (1994). Gender, race, and perception of environmental health risks. Risk Analysis, 14, 1101–1108.

Harrison, G.W., Lau, M.I., Rutstrom, E.E.: Estimating risk attitudes in Denmark: a field experiment. Scand. J. Econ. 109(2), 341–368 (2007)

Hinz, Richard P., David D. McCarthy, and John A. Turner. "Are Women Conservative Investors? Gender Differences in Participant-Directed Pension Investments." In Positioning Pensions for the Twenty-First Century, edited by M. S. Gordon, 0. S. Mitchell, and M. M. Twinney. Philadelphia: Uni- versity of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, 91-103.

Jianakoplos, Nancy A., and Alexandra Bernasek. "Are Women More Risk Averse?" Economic Inquiry36 (October1998): 620-630.

Kolmogorov, A.: Sulla determinazione empirica di una legge di distribuzione.G. Inst. Ital. Attuari. 4, 83 (1933).

Kumar, A.: Self-selection and the forecasting abilities of female equity analysts. J. Account. Res. 48(2), 393–436 (2007)

Levy, H., Elron, E., & Cohen, A. (1999). Gender differences in risk taking and investment behavior: an experimental analysis. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Finance, The Hebrew University.

Morse, W.C.: Risk taking in personal investments. J. Busi. Psychol. 13(2), 281–288 (1998)

Palsson, A. M. "Does the Degree of Relative Risk Aversion Vary with Household Characteristics?" Journal of Economic Psychology17: 1996.

Peggy D. Dwyer P. D., Gilkeson J. H. and List J.A. (2002). Gender differences in revealed risk taking: evidence from mutual fund investors, Economics Letters 76 (2002) 151–158.

Powell M. and Ansic D. (1997). Journal of Economic Psychology, V.18, Issue 6, pg: 605-628.

Rickman, B., C. Parker, and R. Terry. ‘‘Gender Based Differences in Asset Allocations: Evidence from Kansas Board of Regents Faculty.’’ Journal of Financial and Economic Practice, 1(2), 2002, 1–12.

Smirnov, N.V.: Tables for estimating the goodness of fit of empirical distributions. Ann. Math. Stat. 19, 279 (1948).

Spigner, C., Hawkins, W., & Lorens, W. (1993). Gender differences in perception of risk associated with alcohol and drug use among college students. Women and Health, 20, 87–97.

Wang, P.: Brokers still treat men better than women. Money 23, 108–110 (1994).