The theory of Relative Risk Aversion (RRA) claims that educational decision-making is ultimately motivated by the individual’s desire to avoid downward social class mobility, and that this desire is stronger than the desire to pursue upward mobility. This paper implements a dynamic programming model which tests the central behavioral assumption in the RRA theory stating that (1) individuals are forward-looking when choosing education and (2) that the RRA mechanism comprises an important component in the educational decision-making process. Using data from the Danish Youth Longitudinal Study, we find strong evidence of RRA in educational decision-making over and above the effect of traditional social background variables.
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Paper provided by University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Applied Microeconometrics in its series CAM Working Papers with number
2006-04.
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Micklewright, John, 1989.
"Choice at Sixteen,"
Economica,
London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 56(221), pages 25-39, February.
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