Catch me if I fall: Cross-national differences in willingness to take financial risks as a function of social and state ‘cushioning’

Knowledge about the existence and source of national differences in willingness to take risks plays a vital role in ensuring successful communication, collaboration, and understanding across countries, from the personal to the organizational and political/social domain. The current study investigates differences in financial risk-taking willingness between countries as a function of social and state ‘cushioning’, i.e. the extent of a person’s social support network and the state’s social-safety support network. The study compares large-scale household data and self-reports on willingness to take financial risks across three countries differing in their state support networks: Austria, Italy and the United States. Results show that personal social support network size influences risk-taking willingness (social cushioning). Furthermore, and most notably, we find evidence of an interactive relationship between social and state cushioning. High state cushioning renders the influence of social cushioning on financial risk-taking willingness less important. Contributions to management and business practice as well as theory on the influence of personal distance to financial support on risk-taking willingness are discussed.     

货币政策对我国上市银行风险承担的影响研究

2008年金融危机后货币政策对银行风险承担的影响属于经济学界的新兴研究热点。基于2007—2012年14家上市银行的数据,运用GMM动态面板估计方法实证检验了货币政策对我国上市银行风险承担的影响并分析了非国有银行的风险承担行为。实证结果表明,宽松的货币政策会激励银行的风险承担,非国有银行对货币政策变动的反应更为敏感。此外激励效果的产生依赖于银行的资产负债表特征和宏观经济形势。     

储户预期与金融稳定

本文利用中国88家银行的面板数据及中国人民银行的储户问卷调查数据,研究储户对未来经济和收入感知的预期对金融稳定性的影响。研究发现,通过储户资产配置、货币政策预期与银行风险承担三个渠道储户预期水平上升有助于提高金融稳定性;机构储户对金融稳定性的边际影响高于居民储户;城市储户的预防动机需求会降低金融稳定性;从系统重要性银行角度看,储户预期对非系统重要性银行的影响更大,储户对房价信息与股市波动等信息的适应性学习会降低储户预期对金融稳定性的影响。     

股权结构对财险公司风险承担行为影响的实证研究

本文从理论层面上剖析了公司股权结构对风险承担的影响及具体作用机理,然后基于2002～2018年我国77家财险公司的非平衡面板数据构建联立方程模型,利用三阶段最小二乘法(3SLS)进行参数估计.研究发现,股权结构对我国财险公司的风险承担行为存在显著影响.具体而言,股权集中度对承保风险存在显著正向影响,表现出“侵占效应”;...     

货币政策与银行风险承担

本文从货币政策影响银行风险承担的作用机理入手,总结了风险定价模型效应、逐利锦标赛效应、思维定势效应和中央银行沟通反馈效应等四条货币政策对银行风险承担影响的渠道,并以2004~2010年中国16家上市银行的数据为样本,采用系统广义矩估计方法实证分析中国货币政策对银行风险承担的影响。实证分析结果表明:我国货币政策与银行风险呈负相关关系,即宽松的货币政策鼓励了银行的风险承担;随着存款利率水平和存款准备金率的降低,银行的风险承担提高;同时中国银行的风险承担与GDP的增长呈正相关关系,即具有显著顺周期特征。     

Managing decision-making with certainty of threat

Several factors, such as emotion and uncertainty of the outcome, influence decision-making. We assessed decision-making during a risky event (natural hazard, focusing here on two types of volcanic threats) by manipulating the certainty of lethal threat in an information campaign. We hypothesized that the reduction of uncertainty of lethal threat in an information campaign would improve behavior through more suitable choices by reducing the use of emotional choices. In the scenario that occurred in a familiar place, participants who received information with uncertainty of lethal threat presented more emotional and comfortable choices, such as staying at home, rather than detached ones, such as leaving the area. These were either appropriate (for volcanic ash cloud) or inappropriate (for pyroclastic flow). The certainty hypothesis was partially validated, as certainty influenced the quality of choice in the scenarios that took place at home. Furthermore, participants in the volcanic disaster context presented less suitable decisions compared to those in the neutral context, which was discussed in terms of the presence of emotions, such as fear of volcanic eruption. Our results highlight the importance of controlling the comforting emotional aspect of the home environment in any information communication.     

The relationships between CEO characteristics and strategic risk-taking in family firms

Abstract

We examine the influences of chief executive officer (CEO) personal characteristics on family firms’ strategic risk-taking. Building on upper echelons theory, we investigate the influences of CEO family relationships, the CEO professional education, other career experiences, tenure, and career horizon have on the risk level a company takes. By analyzing a sample of 107 Italian family firms listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, we find that company’s risk-taking significantly and negatively relates to CEO family relationship and professional education, but positively to CEO career horizon. This provides support to the argument that such CEO personal characteristics are key factors in explaining differences in risk-taking among family firms. Further, our analysis of control variables shows that family firms’ risk-taking relates positively to board size and negatively to company size. These results suggest that company and board characteristics also significantly influence the risk levels taken by a company.     

Millionaire investors: financial advisors,attribution theory and gender differences

To date little attention has been paid to how social cognitive bias can influence how financial advisors interpret and respond to the needs of millionaire investors, and if this varies depending on the gender of the investor. This research investigates whether experienced professional financial advisors who work with millionaire investors make different attributions for the control and knowledge that investors have of their investments, and if they make different investment portfolio recommendations to equivalent male and female investors. Using methodology novel to finance, this vignette-based study that controls for gender finds evidence that professional financial advisors judge millionaire female investors to have less control over their investment portfolios relative to men. Empirical results also show that female advisors judge women to be less knowledgeable about investments than men. Despite such perceptual differences, advisors recommend equally risky portfolios to male and female investors. These results have implications for wealth management institutions and the monitoring of financial advisors for millionaire individuals.