Risk attitudes, job mobility and subsequent wage growth during the early career

Konferenzbeitrag

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between individuals' willingness to take risk and job mobility during the early career. Job change is a risky decision since it involves substantial costs without entirely foreseeing the benefits at the time the decision is made. We incorporate risk preferences as an additional parameter influencing the individual job change behaviour in an on-the-job search model accounting for nonwage job characteristics. Empirically, we show that more risk-averse individuals voluntarily change their jobs less often compared to more risk-tolerant individuals. In addition, since risk-averse individuals demand higher compensation for the risk associated with uncertain nonwage job characteristics, we find that their job changes are associated with higher wage gains. However, more risk-averse individuals do not obtain higher overall wage growth as a result of the early career compared to more risk-tolerant individuals.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Beiträge zur Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik 2016: Demographischer Wandel - Session: Occupational Choice and Job Mobility: Empirical Evidence ; No. D18-V3

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Maier, Michael ; Argaw, Bethlehem A. ; Maier, Michael F. ; Skriabikova, Olga J.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft
• (where): Kiel und Hamburg
• (when): 2016

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/145677
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET