Are Tall People Less Risk Averse than Others?

Olaf Hübler

No 457, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: This paper examines the question of whether risk aversion of prime-age workers is negatively correlated with human height to a statistically significant degree. A variety of estimation methods, tests and specifications yield robust results that permit one to answer this question in the affirmative. Hausman-Taylor panel estimates, however, reveal that height effects disappear if personality traits and skills, parents' behaviour, and interactions between environment and individual abilities appear simultaneously. Height is a good proxy for these influences if they are not observable. Not only one factor but a combination of several traits and interaction effects can describe the time-invariant individual effect in a panel model of risk attitude.

Keywords: height; risk preference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D90 J13 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 p.
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.405739.de/diw_sp0457.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Are Tall People Less Risk Averse Than Others? (2013)
Working Paper: Are Tall People Less Risk Averse than Others? (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp457

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