Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
潮热，手脚冰凉？没有证据表明更年期对风险偏好有影响
Hot flashes, cold feet? No evidence of a menopause effect on risk preferences
摘要
Menopause, a biological transition marked by the permanent cessation of menstruation, affects millions of women each year, bringing about significant physical, emotional, mental, and social changes. Yet, its potential influence on economic behavior remains largely unexplored. This study investigates whether menopause affects women’s risk preferences, using an incentivized lottery task and psychological questionnaires in a large online sample of over 1700 UK women. While menopausal participants initially appear less risk-taking than non-menopausal women, this difference vanishes once age is controlled for. Across multiple model specifications and robustness checks, menopausal status has no independent effect on investment behavior. Instead, risk aversion increases gradually with age, regardless of menopausal classification. These findings suggest that the economic implications often attributed to menopause may, in fact, reflect broader age-related trends. By disentangling the effects of age and menopausal status, this study contributes to a more precise understanding of how biological and demographic factors shape decision-making.
中文摘要
绝经是一种以月经永久停止为标志的生物学转变，每年影响数百万女性，并带来显著的生理、情绪、心理和社会变化。然而，其对经济行为的潜在影响在很大程度上仍未得到探索。本研究考察绝经是否影响女性的风险偏好，使用激励性彩票任务和心理问卷，基于一个超过1700名英国女性的大型在线样本。尽管绝经参与者最初看起来比未绝经女性更不倾向于冒险，但一旦控制年龄，这一差异便消失。在多种模型设定和稳健性检验中，绝经状态对投资行为没有独立影响。相反，无论绝经分类如何，风险厌恶都会随年龄逐渐上升。这些发现表明，通常被归因于绝经的经济影响，实际上可能反映更广泛的与年龄相关的趋势。通过区分年龄和绝经状态的影响，本研究有助于更精确地理解生物学因素和人口学因素如何塑造决策。