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Culture and Student Achievement: The Intertwined Roles of Patience and Risk-Taking

Author

Listed:
  • Hanushek, Eric A.

    (Stanford University)

  • Kinne, Lavinia

    (DIW Berlin)

  • Lergetporer, Philipp

    (Technical University of Munich)

  • Woessmann, Ludger

    (University of Munich)

Abstract

Patience and risk-taking – two cultural traits that steer intertemporal decision-making – are fundamental to human capital investment decisions. To understand how they contribute to international differences in student achievement, we combine PISA 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 achievement. In an identification strategy addressing unobserved residence-country features, we find similar results when assigning migrant students their country-of-origin cultural traits in models with residence-country fixed effects. Associations of culture with family and school inputs suggest that both may act as channels.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanushek, Eric A. & Kinne, Lavinia & Lergetporer, Philipp & Woessmann, Ludger, 2020. "Culture and Student Achievement: The Intertwined Roles of Patience and Risk-Taking," IZA Discussion Papers 13453, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13453
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Eric A. Hanushek & Lavinia Kinne & Philipp Lergetporer & Ludger Wößmann, 2020. "The Influence of Patience and Risk-Taking on International Differences in School Performance," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 73(10), pages 33-36, October.
    2. Isabella Dobrescu & Alberto Motta & Richard Holden & Adrian Piccoli, 2021. "Cultural Context in Standardized Tests," Discussion Papers 2021-08, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    3. Silvia Angerer & Jana Bolvashenkova & Daniela Glätzle-Rützler & Philipp Lergetporer & Matthias Sutter, 2021. "Children’s patience and school-track choices several years later: Linking experimental and field data," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2021_12, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    4. Etienne Dagorn & David Masclet & Thierry Penard, 2022. "The Behavioral Determinants of School Achievement: A Lab in the Field Experiment in Middle School," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes 1 & University of Caen) 2022-05, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes 1, University of Caen and CNRS.
    5. Davoli, Maddalena & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2021. "Preferences, Financial Literacy, and Economic Development," IZA Discussion Papers 14759, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    intertemporal decision-making; preferences; risk-taking; patience; culture; international student achievement; PISA;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

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