Women are more risk averse in their investments than men, which ultimately affects savings levels, according to a study published in the July/August issue of the CFA Institute Financial Analysts Journal.

In their article “The Impact of Differences in Risk Aversion on Expected Retirement Benefits of Men and Women,” authors John Watson, associate professor of accounting and finance at The University of Western Australia (Crawley, Australia) and Mark McNaughton, business analyst at KordaMentha (Perth, Australia), analyze how men and women differ in their retirement planning and behavior.

In addition to finding that women are inclined to invest more conservatively than men, the authors conclude that women’s lower earnings levels will almost certainly lead to reduced expected retirement benefits. The tendency of women to retire earlier and live longer than men, yet have similar annual retirement needs, compounds these differences.