IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/econjl/v132y2022i646p2290-2307..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Patience, Risk-Taking, and Human Capital Investment Across Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Eric A Hanushek
  • Lavinia Kinneifo
  • Philipp Lergetporer
  • Ludger Woessmann

Abstract

Patience and risk-taking—two preference components that steer intertemporal decision-making—are fundamental to human capital investment decisions. To understand how they contribute to international skill differences, we combine Programme for International Student Assessment tests with the Global Preference Survey. We find that opposing effects of patience (positive) and risk-taking (negative) together account for two-thirds of the cross-country variation in student skills. In an identification strategy addressing unobserved residence country features, we find similar results when assigning migrant students their country-of-origin preferences in models with residence country fixed effects. Associations of national preferences with family and school inputs suggest that both may act as channels.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric A Hanushek & Lavinia Kinneifo & Philipp Lergetporer & Ludger Woessmann, 2022. "Patience, Risk-Taking, and Human Capital Investment Across Countries," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(646), pages 2290-2307.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:132:y:2022:i:646:p:2290-2307.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ej/ueab105
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pelin Akyol & Kala Krishna & Jinwen Wang, 2021. "Taking PISA Seriously: How Accurate are Low-Stakes Exams?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 184-243, June.
    2. Armin Falk & Anke Becker & Thomas Dohmen & Benjamin Enke & David B. Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2017. "Global Evidence on Economic Preferences," NBER Working Papers 23943, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. James Andreoni & Charles Sprenger, 2012. "Risk Preferences Are Not Time Preferences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(7), pages 3357-3376, December.
    4. Marta De Philippis & Federico Rossi, 2021. "Parents, Schools and Human Capital Differences Across Countries," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 1364-1406.
    5. Cordero, Jose M. & Polo, Cristina & Santín, Daniel & Simancas, Rosa, 2018. "Efficiency measurement and cross-country differences among schools: A robust conditional nonparametric analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 45-60.
    6. Sule Alan & Seda Ertac, 2018. "Fostering Patience in the Classroom: Results from Randomized Educational Intervention," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(5), pages 1865-1911.
    7. Bird, Edward J., 2001. "Does the welfare state induce risk-taking?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 357-383, June.
    8. Gary S. Becker, 1964. "Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, First Edition," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck-5, March.
    9. Marco Castillo & John A. List & Ragan Petrie & Anya Samek, 2024. "Detecting Drivers of Behavior at an Early Age: Evidence from a Longitudinal Field Experiment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 132(12), pages 3942-3977.
    10. Christopher D. Carroll & Byung-Kun Rhee & Changyong Rhee, 1994. "Are There Cultural Effects on Saving? Some Cross-Sectional Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 685-699.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dodin, Majed & Findeisen, Sebastian & Henkel, Lukas & Sachs, Dominik & Schüle, Paul, 2024. "Social mobility in Germany," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    2. Huber, Stefanie J. & Paule-Paludkiewicz, Hannah, 2024. "Gender norms and the gender gap in higher education," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    3. Flavia Coda Moscarola & Daniela Del Boca & Giovanna Paladino, 2024. "Intergenerational Transmission of Preferences and Parental Behaviours," CESifo Working Paper Series 10902, CESifo.
    4. Flavia Coda Moscarola & Daniela Boca & Giovanna Paladino, 2025. "Intergenerational transmission of time preferences and saving attitude: the role of information sharing," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1003-1045, September.
    5. Kammas, Pantelis & Litina, Anastasia & Palivos, Theodore, 2023. "The Role of Institutions on the Nexus between Inequality and Public Education," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 529-540.
    6. Angerer, Silvia & Baier, Helena Antonie & Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela & Lergetporer, Philipp & Rittmannsberger, Thomas, 2024. "Economic Preferences Predict COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions and Behavior," IZA Discussion Papers 17533, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Gust, Sarah & Hanushek, Eric A. & Woessmann, Ludger, 2024. "Global universal basic skills: Current deficits and implications for world development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    8. Xavier D'Haultfoeuille & Christophe Gaillac & Arnaud Maurel, 2024. "Linear Regressions with Combined Data," Papers 2412.04816, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2025.
    9. David L. Fuller & Guillaume Vandenbroucke, 2025. "Parents, Patience, and Persistence: A Novel Theory of Intergenerational College Attainment," Working Papers 2025-003, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised 27 Oct 2025.
    10. Michael Kosfeld & Zahra Sharafi & Maíra Sontag González & Na Zou, 2025. "Measuring Economic Preferences with Surveys and Behavioral Experiments," CESifo Working Paper Series 11631, CESifo.
    11. Thomas, Ranjeeta & Galizzi, Matteo M. & Moorhouse, Louisa & Nyamukapa, Constance & Hallett, Timothy B., 2024. "Do risk, time and prosocial preferences predict risky sexual behaviour of youths in a low-income, high-risk setting?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    12. David J. Deming & Mikko I. Silliman, 2024. "Skills and Human Capital in the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 32908, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Angerer, Silvia & Bolvashenkova, Jana & Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela & Lergetporer, Philipp & Sutter, Matthias, 2023. "Children’s patience and school-track choices several years later: Linking experimental and field data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    14. Sconti, Alessia & Caserta, Maurizio & Ferrante, Livio, 2024. "Gen Z and financial education: Evidence from a randomized control trial in the South of Italy," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    15. Maria Alejandra Cattaneo, 2024. "What wages do people expect for vocational and academic education backgrounds in Switzerland?," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 160(1), pages 1-16, December.
    16. D'Haultfoeuille, Xavier & Gaillac, Christophe & Maurel, Arnaud, 2025. "Linear Regressions with Combined Data," IZA Discussion Papers 18276, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Kosfeld, Michael & Sharafi, Zahra & Sontag González, Maíra & Zou, Na, 2025. "Measuring Economic Preferences with Surveys and Behavioral Experiments," IZA Discussion Papers 17608, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Grant, Charles, 2025. "Comparing the response of different education groups to predictable changes in income," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    19. Zullo, Matteo, 2022. "(No) Trade-off between numeracy and verbal reasoning development: PISA evidence from Italy's academic tracking," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hanushek, Eric A. & Kinne, Lavinia & Lergetporer, Philipp & Woessmann, Ludger, 2020. "Culture and Student Achievement: The Intertwined Roles of Patience and Risk-Taking," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 249, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    2. Angerer, Silvia & Bolvashenkova, Jana & Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela & Lergetporer, Philipp & Sutter, Matthias, 2023. "Children’s patience and school-track choices several years later: Linking experimental and field data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    3. Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela & Lergetporer, Philipp & Sutter, Matthias, 2021. "Collective intertemporal decisions and heterogeneity in groups," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 131-147.
    4. Pablo Brañas-Garza & Diego Jorrat & Antonio M. Espín & Angel Sánchez, 2023. "Paid and hypothetical time preferences are the same: lab, field and online evidence," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 26(2), pages 412-434, April.
    5. Sutter, Matthias & Angerer, Silvia & Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela & Lergetporer, Philipp, 2018. "Language group differences in time preferences: Evidence from primary school children in a bilingual city," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 21-34.
    6. Dániel Horn & Hubert János Kiss, 2020. "Time preferences and their life outcome correlates: Evidence from a representative survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-26, July.
    7. Graziella Bertocchi & Marianna Brunetti & Anzelika Zaiceva, 2023. "The Financial Decisions of Immigrant and Native Households: Evidence from Italy," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 9(1), pages 117-174, March.
    8. Zvonimir Bašić & Parampreet C. Bindra & Daniela Glätzle-Rützler & Angelo Romano & Matthias Sutter & Claudia Zoller, 2021. "The Roots of Cooperation," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 097, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    9. Stephen L. Cheung & Agnieszka Tymula & Xueting Wang, 2022. "Present bias for monetary and dietary rewards," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(4), pages 1202-1233, September.
    10. Eric A. Hanushek & Lavinia Kinne & Philipp Lergetporer & Ludger Wößmann, 2020. "Der Einfluss von Geduld und Risikobereitschaft auf internationale Unterschiede in schulischen Leistungen," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 73(10), pages 33-36, October.
    11. Oberrauch, Luis & Kaiser, Tim, 2020. "Financial Literacy and Intertemporal Arbitrage," EconStor Preprints 225642, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    12. Keefer, Philip & Scartascini, Carlos & Vlaicu, Razvan, 2022. "Demand-side determinants of public spending allocations: Voter trust, risk and time preferences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    13. Oberrauch, Luis & Kaiser, Tim, 2022. "Cognitive ability, financial literacy, and narrow bracketing in time-preference elicitation," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    14. Breitkopf, Laura & Chowdhury, Shyamal K. & Priyam, Shambhavi & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah & Sutter, Matthias, 2020. "Do economic preferences of children predict behavior?," DICE Discussion Papers 342, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    15. Brenøe, Anne Ardila & Epper, Thomas, 2022. "Parenting values and the intergenerational transmission of time preferences," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    16. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Dahmann, Sarah Christina & Kamhöfer, Daniel A. & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah, 2022. "The determinants of population self-control," DICE Discussion Papers 385, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    17. Bašić, Zvonimir & Bortolotti, Stefania & Salicath, Daniel & Schmidt, Stefan & Schneider, Sebastian O. & Sutter, Matthias, 2024. "One Size Fits All? The Interplay of Incentives, Effort Provision, and Personality," IZA Discussion Papers 17287, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Florens C. Pfann & Gerard A. Pfann, 2024. "Is Trust a Driver of Patience? A Cross - Country Analysis," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 8(S2), pages 9-18, December.
    19. James J. Heckman & Bridget Galaty & Haihan Tian, 2023. "The Economic Approach to Personality, Character and Virtue," NBER Working Papers 31258, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. John A. List & Ragan Petrie & Anya Samek, 2023. "How Experiments with Children Inform Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(2), pages 504-564, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:132:y:2022:i:646:p:2290-2307.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/resssea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.