Looking for a Man in Finance? An Experiment on Fund Manager Gender and Investor Perception

Last registered on July 30, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Looking for a Man in Finance? An Experiment on Fund Manager Gender and Investor Perception
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0018797
Initial registration date
June 01, 2026

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
June 11, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
July 30, 2026, 9:44 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Emilio J. Lohi
Affiliation
VGSF & WU Vienna
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Dung Thi-Thuy Phung
PI Affiliation
VGSF
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PI Name
Tanja Brieden
PI Affiliation
VGSF
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PI Name
Elena Sponga
PI Affiliation
VGSF
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2026-05-26
End date
2027-02-28
Keywords
Behavior, Finance & Microfinance, Gender
Additional Keywords
Discrimination, Information Provision, Mutual Funds, Investor Decision-Making
JEL code(s)
C91, D14, D83, G11, G23, G41, J16, J71
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We examine whether providing investors with information that male- and female-managed mutual funds perform equally can mitigate the industry's persistent lack of gender parity, which may be partly driven by investor demand. In an incentivized experiment, we will test whether investors discriminate against female fund managers and will separate potential statistical discrimination from taste-based discrimination. The former, rooted in beliefs about group averages that may not reflect the characteristics of subgroups or individuals, should decline with relevant subgroup- or individual-specific information. Our design evaluates three remedies: direct investor education, providing detailed fund performance information, and minimizing gender salience in fund presentations. The experiment is intended to isolate the channels through which information shifts investors' beliefs and investment choices, offering practical guidance for addressing potential gender imbalances in mutual fund selection.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Brieden, Tanja et al. 2026. "Looking for a Man in Finance? An Experiment on Fund Manager Gender and Investor Perception." AEA RCT Registry. July 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.18797-1.1
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Participants in this experiment are provided with basic information about mutual fund investment and are asked to perform fund investing tasks. Two information provision treatments are implemented during the experiment.
Intervention Start Date
2026-06-01
Intervention End Date
2026-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Share of endowment allocated to an index fund (active fund) displayed with a female manager (vs. the same fund displayed with a male manager).
Probability of recommending an index fund (active fund) displayed with a female manager (vs. the same fund displayed with a male manager).
Probability of switching the recommendation after a realized negative/positive return of an index fund (active fund) displayed with a female manager (vs. the same fund displayed with a male manager).
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Because the same underlying fund is displayed to half of participants with a male manager and to the other half with a female manager, the average difference in allocation shares or recommendation probabilities across displayed-gender vignettes identifies the causal effect of manager gender on investor choice. This effect may vary across the gender-information treatment and the fund-information treatment.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Measure of individual risk preference.
Measure of individual financial literacy.
Vote for the women-associated charity or men-associated charity.
Demographic background (i.e., self-proclaimed investment experience, age, field of education).
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
The financial literacy measure also allows us to capture overconfidence.
The charity-vote serves as a measure of taste external to the context of the investment tasks.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We run a RCT with student participants.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
The randomization is conducted through the Qualtrics survey tool.
Randomization Unit
Individual participant.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
No cluster.
Sample size: planned number of observations
Participants are recruited from the population of university students in Austria and Germany. The planned number of individual participants is: N ≈ 750–800 students.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We have five treatment arms in total:
Positive gender treatment × fund-information control: 1/5 of N ≈ 150 participants.
Positive gender treatment × fund-information treatment: 1/5 of N ≈ 150 participants.
Control gender treatment × fund-information control: 1/5 of N ≈ 150 participants.
Control gender treatment × fund-information treatment: 1/5 of N ≈ 150 participants.
Negative gender treatment × fund-information control: 1/5 of N ≈ 150 participants.

Within each of the five arms, the displayed manager gender is randomized at the participant level for each of the two funds, so each fund × displayed-gender cell receives approximately half of the arm (≈ 75 participants).
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
WU Ethics Board
IRB Approval Date
2026-05-26
IRB Approval Number
WU-RP-2026-040
Analysis Plan