Arbeitspapier
Lifecycle Patterns in the Socioeconomic Gradient of Risk Preferences
Who is most likely to change their risk preferences over the lifecourse? Using German nationally representative survey data and methods to separate age from cohort effects, we estimate the lifecycle patterns in the socioeconomic gradient of self-reported risk preferences. Tolerance to risk drops by 0.5 SD across all groups from late adolescence to age 40. From mid to old age, risk tolerance continues to drop for the most disadvantaged, while it stabilizes for all other groups. By age 65, the socioeconomic gradient reaches a maximum of 0.5 SD. Extreme risk aversion among the elderly poor has important policy implications.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 8821
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
- Subject
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risk preferences
socioeconomic inequalities
life-course analysis
cohort effects
SOEP
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
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Schurer, Stefanie
- Event
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Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
- (where)
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Bonn
- (when)
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2015
- Handle
- Last update
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10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Schurer, Stefanie
- Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Time of origin
- 2015