Journal of Financial Markets 2025
Product markets, gender, and investment behavior
Abstract
We examine firms that primarily target male or female consumers and find that female (male) households overweight female- (male)-focused firms. Females’ investment returns slightly outperform men, but they significantly underperform when investing in female-focused firms. Females trade less than men, but their trading activity increases to match men in female-focused firms. We observe weaker, but similar patterns among institutional investors, indicating that even professional investors are influenced by gender-based preferences. Our findings support domain-specific overconfidence among female investors when investing in firms they are more familiar with and where they may perceive having expertise.
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.finmar.2025.101030
- Pages
- 101030
- Language
- en
- Sources
- crossref openalex