Gender differences in attitudes toward risk: Evidence from entreprenuers in Ghana and Uganda

The literature on risk aversion suggests that women are less likely to be risk loving than men in financial and insurance decision-making by virtue of their sex and biological make-up. This paper tests this assertion using a unique dataset collected in Ghana and Uganda and assesses the gender differences in self-reported risk perceptions of entrepreneurs by applying a non-linear decomposition technique. The results indicate that on average, entrepreneurs in Ghana report to be less risk loving their counterparts in Uganda. Furthermore, female entrepreneurs are less likely to report to be risk loving compared to male entrepreneurs in both countries. The results from the decomposition analysis show that gender differences in risk perceptions arise mainly from the unexplained component. For Ghana in particular, the findings show that the gender differences in self-reported risk perceptions stems from differences in education and previous business experience.