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The relationship between economic preferences and psychological personality measures

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Becker Anke
  • Deckers Thomas
  • Dohmen Thomas
  • Falk Armin
  • Kosse Fabian

    (ROA rm)

Abstract

Although both economists and psychologists seek to identify determinants ofheterogeneity in behavior, they use different concepts to capture them. In this reviewwe first analyze the extent to which economic preferences and psychological conceptsof personality - such as the Big Five and locus of control - are related. We analyze datafrom incentivized laboratory experiments and representative samples and find onlylow degrees of association between economic preferences and personality. We thenregress life outcomes - such as labor market success, health status and life satisfaction- simultaneously on preference and personality measures. The analysis reveals that thetwo concepts are rather complementary when it comes to explaining heterogeneity inimportant life outcomes and behavior.

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Paper provided by Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA) in its series ROA Research Memorandum with number 012.

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Date of creation: 2012
Handle: RePEc:unm:umaror:2012012
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Keywords: labour economics ;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
  • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
  • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
  • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
  • I00 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General - - - General
  • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
  • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Papers on Personality and Economics
    by Liam Delaney in Economics and Psychology Research on 2012-04-18 10:30:00
  2. Journal session on personality and economics
    by Liam Delaney in Economics and Psychology Research on 2012-05-04 12:58:00
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