Gender differences in portfolio risk across birth cohort and marital status

This paper investigates gender differences in portfolio risk among Canadian men and women and finds that, controlling for a variety of personal and household characteristics, never married men, born post‐1966, hold significantly higher risk portfolios relative to single women and married couples. Conversely, observed gender differences among pre‐1943 birth cohorts are primarily driven by disparities in characteristics rather than gender or marital status. Previously married women, born 1955–1966, have remarkably high predicted portfolio risk relative to other women and men in the same cohort.