This study examines birth order as a predictor of financial risk tolerance. Three hundred sixty-eight individuals, drawn predominantly from a large university in the Southwestern United States, completed a psychometrically sound financial risk tolerance measure (Grable and Lytton, 1999). The results confirmed previous literature in regard to gender and education as predictors of risk tolerance. However, for the first time, firstborn individuals were shown to be significantly less risk tolerant than later-born individuals. Furthermore, it was shown that later-born males were more likely than the first-born to have a majority of their portfolios allocated in stock; additionally the later-born males were more likely than the later-born females to hold a greater proportion of their assets in stocks.
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This research uses the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) data to examine the cost of health insurance coverage for government as well as private sector employees and for the self-employed. The findings show that, when compared with private-sector employees, the self-employed spend more and government employees spend less on health insurance premium payments. Factors such as education, marital status, region of residence, age, family size and educational attainment are significant determinants of the amount spent on health insurance. In addition, the likelihood of participation in Preferred Provider Option (PPO) health plans is lower for government employees and for self-employed individuals than for private sector employees.</span></span></p>
This research considers the impact of decision power (Blood & Wolfe, 1960) and demographic variables within a couples relationship on risk tolerance and portfolio risk levels. Married couples (N = 175) separately completed a survey consisting of the Blood and Wolfe Decision Power Index, the Survey of Consumer Finances risk tolerance question, demographic information, and selected financial variables. Unlike their husbands, the study found an effect of decision power for wives and portfolio risk level, suggesting that the wifes decision power affects portfolio risk levels. Decision power was found to be a significant factor in risk tolerance for both the husband and wife. Findings indicate that both portfolio risk levels and risk tolerance is determined by the education of the wife and not the husband. Further, a divergence in risk levels occurred when the husband owned a greater degree of assets than the wife.
<p class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The purpose of this research was to test the extent to which variability in husbands’ and wives’ self-assessed financial risk can be attributed to variation in risk tolerance or observer bias resulting from measurement error. Using a sample of 188 well-educated married couples, scores from the Survey of Consumer Finances single risk-assessment item were used to evaluate the following null hypothesis: Husbands and wives do not agree on their level of financial risk tolerance. The hypothesis was tested using a percentage agreement test, a Kappa coefficient test, and a chi-square analysis. Findings led to a rejection of the null hypothesis. That is, couples exhibited general agreement in their assessment of financial risk tolerance, although the level of agreement was rather modest. </span></span></p>
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.