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Intergenerational transmission of risk attitudes – A revealed preference approach

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  • Necker, Sarah
  • Voskort, Andrea

Abstract

This study investigates whether children and parents show a similar willingness to take risk in their choice of occupation. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we calculate the occupational variation in earnings unexplained by human capital differences to obtain a measure of occupational risk. We find that fathers' earnings risk is significantly positively related to sons' earnings risk. The same link is found when unemployment risk is considered. However, a conclusion indicated by previous studies based on self-reports of individuals' risk attitude as well as our findings is that intergenerational transmission is weak in terms of effect size.

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Article provided by Elsevier in its journal European Economic Review.

Volume (Year): 65 (2014)
Issue (Month): C ()
Pages: 66-89

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Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:65:y:2014:i:c:p:66-89
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eer

Keywords: Risk preferences; Intergenerational transmission; Occupational choice;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

  • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
  • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
  • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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Cited by:

  1. Necker, Sarah & Voskort, Andrea, 2014. "Politics and parents — Intergenerational transmission of values after a regime shift," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 177-194.
  2. Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto & Zhu, Yu, 2014. "Intergenerational Mobility of Housework Time in the United Kingdom," IZA Discussion Papers 8674, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  3. Ferdinand M. Vieider & Mathieu Lefebvre & Ranoua Bouchouicha & Thorsten Chmura & Rustamdjan Hakimov & Michal Krawczyk & Peter Martinsson, 2015. "Common Components Of Risk And Uncertainty Attitudes Across Contexts And Domains: Evidence From 30 Countries," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 421-452, 06.
  4. Vanessa Hartlaub & Thorsten Schneider, 2012. "Educational Choice and Risk Aversion: How Important Is Structural vs. Individual Risk Aversion?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 433, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
  5. Vieider, Ferdinand M. & Chmura, Thorsten & Martinsson, Peter, 2012. "Risk attitudes, development, and growth: Macroeconomic evidence from experiments in 30 countries," Discussion Papers, WZB Junior Research Group Risk and Development SP II 2012-401, Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB).
  6. Philipp Huebler & Andreas Kucher, 2016. "Ashes to ashes, time to time - Parental time discounting and its role in the intergenerational transmission of smoking," Discussion Paper Series 326, Universitaet Augsburg, Institute for Economics.

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