Woman's investment pays the best interest: Literature-based dissertation on gender difference in investing in emerging markets

Master Thesis

2014

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University of Cape Town

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Gender differences in investing is an expanding research area in Behavioural Finance. Research has shown that males and females behave differently in many of their decision-making processes, but this dissertation will focus mainly on the differences in investing behaviours. Because males are generally overconfident and more likely to take risks, they partake more often in competitive types of activities such as trading. Because men overtrade, they incur friction costs which lowers their return. Thus research has shown that, on a risk-adjusted basis, females are better investors than males. This study, based on the findings of Willows (2012), is a literature-based dissertation that investigates gender differences among mutual fund investors and mutual fund managers, as well as the gender differences in mutual fund investors in both developed markets and emerging markets. This dissertation found no significant difference in fund performance based on the manager's or the investor's gender based on market context. However, research is currently very limited in terms of investor behaviour along gender lines in an emerging market such as South African. This dissertation's aim is to set the theoretical basis for a fuller empirical exploration of gender differences in emerging markets.
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