The relative risk aversion hypothesis of educational choice |
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Authors: | Richard Davies Eskil Heinesen Anders Holm |
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Institution: | (1) Centre for Applied Statistics, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, UK (Fax: +44-1524-593429; e-mail: r.davies@lancaster.ac.uk), GB;(2) AKF, Institute of Local Government Studies, Nyropsgade 37, DK-1602 Copenhagen V, Denmark (Fax: +45-3315-2875; e-mail: esh@akf.dk), DK;(3) Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, Linnésgade 22, DK-1361 Copenhagen K, Denmark (Fax: +45-3532-3940; e-mail: anders.holm@sociology.ku.dk), DK |
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Abstract: | Analysing young people's educational choices, we derive and test implications of a relative risk aversion hypothesis: that
educational choices are made so as to minimize the risk of ending up with a lower level of education than one's parents. These
implications are in general different from what one would expect from human capital theory. We use a unique data set which
combines data from administrative registers on young people's pathways through the educational system and their family background
with survey data on their academic abilities at lower secondary school. The evidence is partly in favour of the relative risk
aversion hypothesis.
Received: 19 August 1999/Accepted: 10 January 2001
All correspondence to Eskil Heinesen. We are grateful to Karin Blix Mogensen and Martin B?g for excellent research assistance,
and to two anonymous referees, John F. Ermisch, Martin Browning, Michael Rosholm, Paul Bingley, and participants at the conference
of the European Society for Population Economics in Turin, 1999, for valuable comments and suggestions. Responsible editor: John F. Ermisch. |
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Keywords: | JEL classification: I21 J24 J62 |
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