Landsbankinn will participate in research by Associate Professor Arna Olafsson from the Department of Finance at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) into the complex reasons behind the financial decisions made by men and women.
Lilja B. Einarsdóttir, CEO of Landsbankinn:
“We are excited to participate in the research as it is important for us to know and understand the drivers behind our customers’ financial decisions as well as possible. It has long been viewed as an established fact that the genders take different financial decisions and women have generally been more risk averse then men, potentially leading to lower gain on savings and investment. Through our participation in this research, we want to contribute to more knowledge about gendered financial choices. This knowledge will both help the Bank to provide better service and reduce the difference in gendered decision and return on investment.”
Arna Olafsson, Associate Professor at CBS:
“Understanding what drives gender differences in financial choices is urgent and important because financial decisions impact every stage of life. The existing literature on the financial gender gap has been limited to investigating a narrow set of potential drivers at a time. This has made it difficult to assess whether the differences are due to these factors alone or if there are unobservable confounding elements at play. For example, existing research suggests that a large part of gender differences in labour market success can be attributed to women becoming mothers, rather than solely due to their gender. However, it has not yet been investigated how parenthood might affect financial choices. Furthermore, it has been previously established that men and women differ along various dimensions that may influence financial choices and that their financial choices are different, but it has been difficult to establish a causal relation so far.”
The project has been awarded the prestigious ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council. To find answers to the underlying reasons why men and women make different financial choices, the research will use questionnaires and non-personally identifiable data from Landsbankinn. The project begins in 2025.
