Are Tall People Less Risk Averse than Others?

Olaf Hübler

No 6441, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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: risk preference; height (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D90 J13 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2012-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published in: Journal of Applied Social Science Studies, 2013, 133 (1), 23-42

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp6441.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)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6441

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().