Parental risk attitudes and children's secondary school track choice

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. This series presents research findings based either directly on data from the German SocioEconomic Panel Study (SOEP) or using SOEP data as part of an internationally comparable data set (e.g. CNEF, ECHP, LIS, LWS, CHER/PACO). SOEP is a truly multidisciplinary household panel study covering a wide range of social and behavioral sciences: economics, sociology, psychology, survey methodology, econometrics and applied statistics, educational science, political science, public health, behavioral genetics, demography, geography, and sport science. Terms of use: Documents inThe decision to publish a submission in SOEPpapers is made by a board of editors chosen by the DIW Berlin to represent the wide range of disciplines covered by SOEP. There is no external referee process and papers are either accepted or rejected without revision. Papers appear in this series as works in progress and may also appear elsewhere. They often represent preliminary studies and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be requested from the author directly. Oliver Wölfel Institute for Employment Research (IAB) AbstractIt is well known that individuals' risk attitudes are related to behavioral outcomes such as smoking, portfolio decisions, and also educational attainment, but there is barely any evidence on whether parental risk attitudes affect the educational attainment of dependent children. We add to this literature and examine children's secondary school track choice in Germany where tracking occurs at age ten and has a strong binding character. Our results indicate no consistent patterns for paternal risk preferences but a strong negative impact of maternal risk aversion on children's enrollment in upper secondary school. JEL Classification: I21, J24

The role of paternal risk attitudes in long-run education outcomes and intergenerational mobility

“…I complement and confirm the pioneering findings by Brown et al (2012), Wölfel & Heineck (2012) and Checchi et al (2014),…”

“…Building on previous research by Brown et al (2012) and Wölfel & Heineck (2012), I isolate the role of fathers' risk attitudes in sons' education outcomes by a selection-on-observables approach according to the following relationship:…”

“…In contrast to Wölfel & Heineck (2012), who employ self-reported risk attitudes, 5 A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T Leonardi (2007) and Checchi et al (2014) derive parental risk attitudes from hypothetical lottery questions. In an experimental study, Dohmen et al (2005) show that self-reported risk attitudes predict behaviour in risky situations more reliably than measures derived from standard lottery questions.…”

“…Thus one can assume that parents either influence or outright make their children's decisions and that these decisions are related to parental risk attitudes. First research finds a negative relationship between parental risk aversion and children's education outcomes, measured at rather early stages in life (Leonardi, 2007, Brown, Ortiz-Nunez & Taylor, 2012, Wölfel & Heineck, 2012, Checchi, Fiorio & Leonardi, 2014.…”

“…They derive parental risk attitudes from hypothetical gambles and find that higher parental risk aversion is associated with lower educational achievements. Wölfel & Heineck (2012) establish a relationship of parental risk attitudes and children's attended school track between 10 and 15 years of age. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel Study and a measure of self-reported risk attitudes, they find that the probability of attending a school track that prepares for university education is higher when mothers exhibit a higher risk tolerance.…”