The Relationship Between Economic Preferences and Psychological Personality Measures

Anke Becker, Thomas Deckers, Thomas Dohmen, Armin Falk and Fabian Kosse

from University of Munich, Department of Economics

Abstract: Although both economists and psychologists seek to identify determinants of heterogeneity in behavior, they use different concepts to capture them. In this review, we first analyze the extent to which economic preferences and psychological concepts of personality, such as the Big Five and locus of control, are related. We analyze data from incentivized laboratory experiments and representative samples and find only low degrees of association between economic preferences and personality. We then regress life outcomes (such as labor market success, health status, and life satisfaction) simultaneously on preference and personality measures. The analysis reveals that the two concepts are rather complementary when it comes to explaining heterogeneity in important life outcomes and behavior.

Keywords: Big Five; locus of control; risk preference; social preferences; time preference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
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Related works:
Journal Article: The Relationship Between Economic Preferences and Psychological Personality Measures (2012)
Working Paper: The Relationship between Economic Preferences and Psychological Personality Measures (2012)
Working Paper: The Relationship Between Economic Preferences and Psychological Personality Measures (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lmu:muench:68610

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