Financial decision-making power and risk taking

We find that financial decision-making power per se is significant in explaining individuals’ objective risk-taking behavior and subjective risk attitude. More importantly, we show that this decision power attenuates the correlation between subjective risk attitude and objective risk taking. These results are significant in understanding the important role of decision-making power in individual risk-taking behavior. •Financial decision-making power explains objective risk taking.•Subjective risk attitude correlates with objective risk taking.•Decision power attenuates the effect of subjective risk attitude.•First study to examine the mediation effect of decision power.