The relative risk aversion hypothesis of educational choice

Eskil Heinesen, Richard Davies () and Anders Holm ()
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Richard Davies: Centre for Applied Statistics, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, UK

Journal of Population Economics, 2002, vol. 15, issue 4, 683-713

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.

Keywords: Educational choice; human capital; intergenerational mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J24 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-11-25
Note: Received: 19 August 1999/Accepted: 10 January 2001
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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