Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/238261 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
Working Papers in Economics and Statistics No. 2021-03
Publisher: 
University of Innsbruck, Research Platform Empirical and Experimental Economics (eeecon), Innsbruck
Abstract: 
Since the financial crisis, the behavior and personality traits of finance professionals have come under scrutiny. As comprehensive scientific findings are lacking, we run artefactual field experiments with finance professionals and a random sample of the working population to investigate differences across industry-relevant economic preferences and personality traits. We report that finance professionals are more risk tolerant, more selfish, less trustworthy, and show higher levels of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. However, we find that many of these differences disappear after adjusting for socioeconomic characteristics, indicating that finance professionals are similar to employees in other industries with a comparable socio-economic background.
Subjects: 
Experimental finance
economic preferences
personality traits
finance professionals
general working population
JEL: 
C93
G11
G41
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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