Is it a boy or a girl? Newborn gender andhousehold portfolio decisions

This paper analyzes the role of newborn gender inhousehold investment decisions. Parenting a newbaby is associated with a reduction of the share offinancial wealth held as cash and an increase inrisky investments. The reallocation is howevergender‐heterogeneous: the increase in the share ofboth total and financial wealth allocated to riskyassets when parenting girls is reduced for house-holds parenting boys. The effect is driven by the firstchild. Parents of newborn girls hold riskier portfo-lios because they make financial decisions influ-enced by their expectations on the autonomy andfinancial independence of newborns in adulthood