Class Year

2022

Document Type

Student Research Paper

Date of Creation

Fall 2021

Department 1

Management

Abstract

Behavioral finance and the study into biases is a rapidly increasing area of interest for finance professionals and academics alike. Understanding the sources of overconfidence and the self-attribution bias from a gendered framework can provide insight for managers and industry leaders to insulate their firms from underperformance losses due to these biases. Education and relevant financial experience are key controllable variables that impact overconfidence and self- attribution. Using a survey sent to around 130 students and finance professionals, gender, education, and relevant experience were tested against overconfidence and self-attributional scores to determine if there were any meaningful relationships. The results suggest that gender, education, and experience are all significant magnifiers of potentially harmful biases. As the finance industry grows more demographically representative, the industry leadership and academic datasets need to reflect that trend, a gap which this research aims to address.

Comments

Written for MGT 400: Advanced Topics in Business, Irrational Behavior

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Share

COinS