Stock market participation differs a lot across countries. Cultural dimensions could be a potential factor for that. We show that indeed uncertainty avoidance (UAI) is linked to rates of stock market participation across countries. We can show even more that uncertainty avoidance has an indirect effect through loss aversion on stock market participation. The country level effects are confirmed on the individual level using data from a recent large-scale international survey, but on individual level there is also a strong effect of UAI on stock market participation after controlling for loss aversion. These results are robust after controlling for ambiguity aversion, and economic and demographic variables. Finally, we find that UAI is related to negative attitudes about stock markets in general.

各国之间的股票市场参与差异很大。文化方面可能是造成这种情况的潜在因素。我们证明确实，避免不确定性（UAI）与各国股票市场的参与率有关。我们可以进一步证明，避免规避不确定性通过对股票市场的厌恶对损失的间接影响。使用最近一次大型国际调查得出的数据在个人层面上确认了国家层面的影响，但在个人层面上，在控制了损失规避之后，UAI对股票市场的参与也产生了强烈影响。在控制歧义厌恶，经济和人口变量后，这些结果是可靠的。最后，我们发现UAI与总体上对股市的负面态度有关。