Gender Differences in Financial Advice

106 Pages Posted: 4 Mar 2015 Last revised: 28 Nov 2023

See all articles by Tabea Bucher-Koenen

Tabea Bucher-Koenen

Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences - Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA); ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Andreas Hackethal

Goethe University Frankfurt - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration; Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE

Johannes Koenen

ARC Econ GmbH

Christine Laudenbach

SAFE and Goethe University

Date Written: November 12, 2023

Abstract

Based on data gathered from 27,000 real-world meetings between financial advisors and clients of a large German bank, we show that advisors offer more self-serving advice to women, while men are more likely to receive sales fee rebates and less likely to be recommended expensive bank-owned funds. Additional client and advisor surveys provide evidence consistent with statistical discrimination based on gender as a proxy for client financial sophistication with female clients exhibiting lower literacy, confidence, and price sensitivity. Moreover, female advisors report less confidence in their own professional skills and engage in less discrimination than their male colleagues.

Keywords: Financial sophistication, financial literacy, statistical discrimination, gender economics

JEL Classification: G02, E02, D08

Suggested Citation

Bucher-Koenen, Tabea and Bucher-Koenen, Tabea and Hackethal, Andreas and Koenen, Johannes and Laudenbach, Christine, Gender Differences in Financial Advice (November 12, 2023). SAFE Working Paper No. 309, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2572961 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2572961

Tabea Bucher-Koenen (Contact Author)

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1
D-68034 Mannheim, 68034
Germany

Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences - Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) ( email )

Amalienstrasse 33
Munich, 80799
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://mea.mpisoc.mpg.de/

Andreas Hackethal

Goethe University Frankfurt - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration ( email )

Theodor-W.-Adorno Platz 3
Frankfurt am Main, 60323
Germany

Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE ( email )

(http://www.safe-frankfurt.de)
Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 3
Frankfurt am Main, 60323
Germany

Johannes Koenen

ARC Econ GmbH ( email )

Berliner Platz 13
Limburgerhof, 67117
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://arc-econ.de

Christine Laudenbach

SAFE and Goethe University ( email )

Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 3
Frankfurt, 60323
Germany

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