Self-Directed Pensions: Gender, Risk, and Portfolio Choices*

In this paper, I investigate gender differences in financial risk‐taking from a new perspective, and I show that gender plays a different role across the risk distribution. To evaluate risk‐taking, I exploit portfolio choices following a reform that entitles almost the entire Swedish workforce to choose a risk profile for a part of their public‐pension contributions. The novel finding is that portfolio risk does not differ much between the men...