Tolerância ao risco subjetivo: análise das habilidades numéricas como fator determinante

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of numerical skills in subjective risk tolerance (economic concept of risk aversion). We surveyed 308 undergraduate students from a Brazilian public university. The instruments used to analyze the data were descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation, and ordered logistics regression. The results show that the higher the numerical ability, the lower the likelihood of high subjective risk tolerance. This shows, for the sample used, that the ease with numerical calculations makes individuals become more cautious with their financial decisions, possibly because of a greater understanding of the risks inherent to the financial operations.