“What About Nurture? Financial Decision-Making and Growing Up” by Prof. Zoran Ivkovich
Professor, Department of Finance
Michigan State University
We study the relation between individuals’ financial decision-making and nurture, particularly birth order and resources available in childhood, as well as their current characteristics (ability, education, employment, income, wealth). Across initiation of stock-market participation, level of portfolio risk, and portfolio performance, birth order plays an economically and statistically significant role. Older (eldest) siblings are more likely to initiate stock-market participation; they also carry more portfolio risk, yet deliver stronger risk-adjusted performance. Older (eldest) siblings are less likely to exhibit trading-related behavioral biases and more likely to persevere following initial portfolio underperformance. Financial decision-making is related to several other nurture-based variables.
