Gender Differences in Knowledge, Experience, and Preference of Sustainable Investments

Abstract

Recent and ongoing regulatory efforts of the European Commission have made sustainable investments a relevant topic for the broader public. Likewise, the economy itself and the financial markets within the European Union are in transition to support the overall goal of climate neutrality by 2050. Scientific research mostly focused on professional or institutional investors, hardly on retail investors. This study aimed to investigate whether there are significant gender differences in prospective retail investors’ knowledge, experience, and preference for sustainable investment (SI). The research was based on data from a survey conducted by the Portuguese Securities Market Commission at the end of 2020, containing a general section on investments in securities as well as a section dedicated to sustainable investments. To test the hypothesis of equalness, chi-square tests were applied. In the second step, multinomial logit regression testing and marginal effects were computed to identify determinants of sustainable investment knowledge and experience. The results proved that there are gender differences in the knowledge of sustainable investing. Well-known gender differences in general investment knowledge and behavior were confirmed.