Gender differences in asset information acquisition

Using an experiment, we test whether men acquire information about investments differently than women. When information is costly, we find that men purchase more information about investment choices than females and more information increases the likelihood of owning the risky asset. The information that subjects purchase suggests they are searching for reference points to simplify their decisions and reduce ambiguity. As a robustness check, we also examine behavior in a modified Holt and Laury risk preference task and find that men and women acquire information differently in that setting as well.