The association between South African investors’ financial risk tolerance and demographic variables

Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The association between South African investors’ financial risk tolerance and demographic variables
 
Creator Maritz, Leandri Oberholzer, Merwe
 
Subject financial risk tolerance; demographic variables; South African investors; finametrica; expected utility
Description Orientation: The expected utility theory was used as the lens to focus on how South African investors’ demographics are associated with their financial risk tolerance.Research purpose: To determine the association between eight demographic variables of investors and their financial risk tolerance scores.Motivation for the study: Instead of applying a single aggregated risk tolerance score, this study distinguishes itself from most other studies to refine risk tolerance into various factors.Research approach/design and method: Data for this study were obtained from FinaMetrica Pty Ltd, namely the results of their 25-item risk tolerance questionnaire, which also includes eight demographic variables of the respondents. In total, 3473 of the respondents were considered valuable. This study identified three risk tolerance factors: factor 1 (level of risk), factor 2 (past experience) and factor 3 (personal feelings and attitudes).Main findings: The study found that men are statistically significantly more risk tolerant than women, and investors’ education level, income level and combined income are all positively statistically significantly associated with risk tolerance as per factors 1, 2 and 3. Some unique findings were revealed from this study, that is, as investors age, their risk tolerance increases (as per factor 1); married investors are more risk tolerant than the unmarried (as per factor 2); and the number of dependents is positively associated with risk tolerance, factors 1 and 2.Practical/managerial implications: The practical value of the study is that investors and financial advisors have a more enhanced view to better understand the degree of association of demographic variables on investors’ level of risk; the roles of past experiences and personal attitudes and feelings are associated with demographic variables.Contribution/value-add: Breaking up the risk tolerance into factors contributes to a more refined analysis being conducted.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor The authors thank FinaMetrica Pty Ltd for providing the data for this study and Albert Hong and Nicki Potts, PlanPlus Global Inc, who supported us in this process. The authors also thank Prof Faans Steyn, Statistical Consultation Services at the North-Wes
Date 2019-10-29
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/jef.v12i1.469
 
Source Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences; Vol 12, No 1 (2019); 12 pages 2312-2803 1995-7076
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://jefjournal.org.za/index.php/jef/article/view/469/773 https://jefjournal.org.za/index.php/jef/article/view/469/772 https://jefjournal.org.za/index.php/jef/article/view/469/774 https://jefjournal.org.za/index.php/jef/article/view/469/771
 
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Leandri Maritz, Merwe Oberholzer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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