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Abstract
This paper examines how cultural factors shape the gender gap in financial literacy and how the gap carries over into women’s choices among modern investment instruments. Drawing on international surveys, household studies and experimental evidence, it shows that the gap is global but uneven, is only partly explained by education, income and marital status, and is linked to confidence, household roles and risk attitudes. The paper identifies two testable cultural channels, gender-role norms about financial authority and the socialization of confidence and risk attitudes, and proposes how to test them on data that cover digital investment products.
References
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