The relationship between demographic characteristics and risk tolerance level of college students in Wenzhou Kean University for the academic year 2019

Abstract

Finance has always been a popular term. People have lots of illusions regarding the finance industry such as instant millionaire. The expansion and once prosperity of the financial markets attract people to rush into the market. But profits always come with risks. Investors make investment decisions taking different risks including market risk, liquidity risk, credit risk, and inflation risk, etc. The measurement of individual risk tolerance level as a topic in behavioral finance shows its importance gradually. Figuring out the individual risk tolerance will help the study of investor behavior, and even help investors make wiser decisions. This thesis delves into the relationship between demographic characteristics and the risk tolerance level regarding college students, with the aspects of gender, income, and college department. A self-constructed internet survey is adopted to collect the required data. Based on the regression analysis of collected data, two demographic characteristics, gender, and income have significant relationships with the risk tolerance level of college students; but the college department has no significant relationship with the risk tolerance level of college students.