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Portrait of Erik Wengström. Photo.

Erik Wengström

Professor, Director of Doctoral studies, Department of Economics

Portrait of Erik Wengström. Photo.

Economic Preferences and Personality Traits Among Finance Professionals and the General Population : Characteristics of Finance Professionals

Author

  • Martin Holmén
  • Felix Holzmeister
  • Michael Kirchler
  • Matthias Stefan
  • Erik Wengström

Summary, in English

Based on artefactual field experiments, we investigate whether finance professionals differ from a sample of the working population in terms of industry-relevant preferences and personality traits. When adjusting for socioeconomic characteristics, we find only few and less marked differences: finance professionals are less risk averse, less trustworthy, show higher levels of psychopathy and are more competitive than participants from the general population. In an additional survey, experts with hiring experience consider industry selection, self-selection and imprinting by industry norms as explanatory for the observed subject pool differences.

Department/s

  • Department of Economics

Publishing year

2023-07-31

Language

English

Pages

2949-2977

Publication/Series

Economic Journal

Volume

133

Issue

656

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Economics

Keywords

  • C93 - Field Experiments
  • G11 - Portfolio Choice
  • Investment Decisions
  • G41 - Role and Effects of Psychological

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1468-0297