Nataliya Barasinska

Does Gender Affect Funding Success at the Peer-to-Peer Credit Markets? Evidence from the Largest German Lending Platform

Studies of peer-to-peer lending in the USA find that female borrowers have better chances of getting funds than males. Is differential treatment of borrowers of different sexes a common feature of peer-to-peer lendingmarkets or is it subject to specific businessmodels, ways of fixing loan contracts and even national financial systems? We aim at answering this question by providing evidence on loan procurement at the largest German peer-to-peer lending platform Smava.de. Our results show that gender does not affect individual borrowers chances of funding success on this platform, ceteris paribus. Hence, gender discrimination seems to be a platform-specific phenomenon rather than a common attribute of this innovative form of credit markets.

Financial Risk Aversion and Household Asset Diversification

This paper explores the relationship between risk attitude and asset diversification in household portfolios. We first examine the impact of manifested risk aversion on the total number of distinct assets held in a portfolio (naive diversification). The second part of the paper focuses on a more sophisticated strategy of diversification and asks whether financial theory is compatible with observed diversification patterns. Based on the German Socioeconomic Panel which provides unique measures of individual propensity for taking risk, the results of the regression analysis show that, along with some socioeconomic characteristics, the propensity for taking investment risk is an important predictor of a households diversification strategy. However, some of our findings are strongly at odds with what the concept of mean-variance utility suggests.

Are private equity investors good or evil

The paper investigates the motives of activity (entry and exit) of Private Equity (PE) investors in European companies. Investment of a PE firm is not viewed unambiguously. First, it is claimed that PE investment is made for the sake of seeking short-term gains by taking control and utilizing the companys resources. Second, a PE firm invests because of prior identification of chances to add value to the company. We attempt to resolve these two conflicting conjectures. We use the Bureau van Dijks Amadeus database of very large, large and medium-sized European companies. Our major results can be summarized as follows. First, PE firms are less willing to enter the firm if there is already a blocking majority, and they are more likely to leave the firm if control cannot be overtaken. Second, less mature firms are less able to lure a PE firm to invest, thus indicating a safe strategy of PE investors. Third, we do not find empirical evidence that a PE investor comes in to strip a firm of its equity. On the other hand, PE investors are likely to leave the company if it deteriorates in terms of returns and cash. Finally, when comparing the activity of PE and other financial investors, we find essential differences in choosing the field and environment of activity.

Is the Willingness to Take Financial Risk a Sex-Linked Trait? Evidence from National Surveys of Household Finance

We investigate whether the willingness to take investment risk is a sex-linked trait and link the results to the countrys gender equality regime. Our empirical analysis involves household data on financial asset holdings as well as on self-reported risk tolerance for Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Of those countries, Italy is by far the country with the greatest degree of gender inequality according to the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. Two stages of building a portfolio of financial assets are analyzed. For the first-stage decision of whether to invest in risky assets in the first place, gender is found to have no effect in Austria, the Netherlands and Spain but does have an impact in Italy. However, even for Italy, it seems to be irrelevant in the second-stage decision about the share of wealth invested in the risky assets. We infer from these findings that, for countries with a high degree of gender equality, it is inappropriate to base financial advice primarily on gender.

Determinants of Private Equity Investment in European Companies

The paper investigates the motives of Private Equity (PE) investors to engage in European companies. Investment of a PE firm is not viewed unambiguously. First, it is claimed that PE investing is made for the sake of poor redistribution of wealth. Second, PE firm invests because of prior identification of chances to add value to the company. We attempt to resolve these two conflicting conjectures. We use the Bureau van Dijks Amadeus database of very large, large and medium sized European companies. Our major results can be summarized as follows. A financially constraint or risky company has lower chances to lure a PE firm to invest. On the one hand, the larger the equity of the company the larger the likelihood of receiving investment from a PE firm. On the other hand, larger cash flow is likely to repel PE investor.