In this paper new and detailed empirical evidence on the impact of family on individuals’ stock market participation decision is provided. Since influence is likely to vary systematically over different types of individuals the heterogeneous effect of social interaction, in a setting including both community as well as within-family effects, is further examined. The main results indicate that individuals’ likelihood for subsequent participation increases (decreases) following positive (negative) parental and partner stock market experiences. The effect of social interaction is further found to be of relatively greater importance for individuals with relatively lower levels of financial literacy and for individuals with an on average higher level of interpersonal trust. In terms of gender, both male and female participation is positively affected by family influence, while community effects mainly pertain to males.

Novel evidence is provided indicating that the influence from family (parents and partners) and peer social interaction on individuals’ stock market participation vary over different types of individuals. Focusing on distinct features of concern for the social interaction process, results imply that individuals’ exposure to, and valuation of, stock market related social signals are of importance and thus, contribute to the understanding of the heterogeneous influence of social interaction. Overall, the results are interesting and enhance the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of social interaction on individuals’ financial decision making. 

In this paper, the impact of divorce ­­­on individual financial behavior is empirically examined. Evidence that divorcing individuals increase their saving rates before the divorce is presented. This may be seen as a response of the increase in background risk. After the divorce, negative divorce effects on individual saving rates and risky shares are established, which may lead to disparities in wealth accumulation possibilities between married and divorced. Women are, on average, shown to not adjust their precautionary savings to the same extent as men before the divorce. I also provide tentative evidence that women reduce their financial risk-taking more than men after a divorce. This could potentially be a result of inequalities in financial positions or an adjustment towards individual preferences.  

Novel empirical evidence indicates the importance of gender identity and gender norms on individuals’ financial risk-taking. Specifically, by use of matching and by dividing male and females into those with “traditional” versus “nontraditional” gender identities, comparison of average risk-taking between groupings indicate that over a third (about 35-40%) of the identified total gender risk differential is explained by differences in gender identities. Results further indicate that risky financial market participation is 19 percentage points higher in groups of women with nontraditional, compared with traditional, gender identities. The results, obtained while conditioning upon a vast number of controls, are robust towards a large number of alternative explanations and indicate that some individuals (mainly women) partly are fostered by society, through identity formation and socially constructed norms, to a relatively lower financial risk-taking.