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Do Students Expect Compensation for Wage Risk?

Author

Listed:
  • Schweri, Jürg

    (Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training)

  • Hartog, Joop

    (University of Amsterdam)

  • Wolter, Stefan C.

    (University of Bern)

Abstract

We use a unique data set about the wage distribution that Swiss students expect for themselves ex ante, deriving parametric and non-parametric measures to capture expected wage risk. These wage risk measures are unfettered by heterogeneity which handicapped the use of actual market wage dispersion as risk measure in earlier studies. Students in our sample anticipate that the market provides compensation for risk, as has been established with Risk Augmented Mincer earnings equations estimated on market data: higher wage risk for educational groups is associated with higher mean wages. With observations on risk as expected by students we find compensation at similar elasticities as observed in market data. The results are robust to different specifications and estimation models.

Suggested Citation

  • Schweri, Jürg & Hartog, Joop & Wolter, Stefan C., 2009. "Do Students Expect Compensation for Wage Risk?," IZA Discussion Papers 4069, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4069
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    Cited by:

    1. Joop Hartog & Xiaohao Ding & Juan Liao, 2011. "Is Earnings Uncertainty Relevant for Educational Choice? An Empirical Analysis for China," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 11-075/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    2. Schweri, Juerg & Hartog, Joop & Wolter, Stefan C., 2011. "Do students expect compensation for wage risk?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 215-227, April.
    3. Simone N. Tuor & Uschi Backes‐Gellner, 2010. "Risk‐return trade‐offs to different educational paths: vocational, academic and mixed," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 31(5), pages 495-519, August.
    4. Díaz Serrano, Lluís, 2017. "The Reliability of Students’ Earnings Expectations," Working Papers 2072/290760, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    5. Vaishali Zambre, 2018. "The Gender Gap in Wage Expectations: Do Young Women Trade off Higher Wages for Lower Wage Risk?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1742, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    6. Fouarge, Didier & Kriechel, Ben & Dohmen, Thomas, 2014. "Occupational sorting of school graduates: The role of economic preferences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 335-351.
    7. Schweri, Juerg & Hartog, Joop, 2017. "Do wage expectations predict college enrollment? Evidence from healthcare," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 135-150.
    8. Schweri, Juerg & Hartog, Joop, 2014. "Do wage expectations influence the decision to enroll in nursing college?," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100542, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Juerg Schweri, 2021. "Predicting polytomous career choices in healthcare using probabilistic expectations data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(3), pages 544-563, March.
    10. Tacsir, Ezequiel, 2010. "Making your own future: Expectations and occupation choice," MERIT Working Papers 2010-058, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    11. Koşar, Gizem & van der Klaauw, Wilbert, 2023. "Workers' Perceptions of Earnings Growth and Employment Risk," IZA Discussion Papers 16013, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Diaz-Serrano, Luis & Nilsson, William, 2022. "The reliability of students’ earnings expectations," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    13. Pamela Giustinelli, 2022. "Expectations in Education: Framework, Elicitation, and Evidence," Working Papers 2022-026, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    14. Ana Fernandes & Martin Huber & Giannina Vaccaro, 2021. "Gender differences in wage expectations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-24, June.
    15. José Vieira & Carolina Constância & João Teixeira, 2020. "Education and risk compensation in wages: a quantile regression approach," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 194-198, February.
    16. Kässi, Otto, 2012. "Uncertainty and Heterogeneity in Returns to Education: Evidence from Finland," MPRA Paper 48738, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Aug 2013.
    17. Zsuzsanna Veroszta, 2014. "Patterns of students' earning orientations and expectations," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 0201473, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    18. Yang, Guanyi & Casner, Ben, 2021. "How much does schooling disutility matter?," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 87-95.
    19. Mazza, Jacopo & van Ophem, Hans & Hartog, Joop, 2013. "Unobserved heterogeneity and risk in wage variance: Does more schooling reduce earnings risk?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 323-338.
    20. Mazza, Jacopo & Hartog, Joop, 2011. "Do They Understand the Benefits from Education? Evidence on Dutch High School Students’ Earnings Expectations," IZA Discussion Papers 5714, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    expectations; wage risk; risk compensation; wage; skewness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

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