Occupational Sorting of School Graduates: The Role of Economic Preferences

Didier Fouarge, Ben Kriechel and Thomas Dohmen

No 8355, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We relate risk attitudes and patience of young graduates from high-school, college and university, measured around the time that they start their labor market career in a large representative survey, to the riskiness and timing of earnings in the occupations they choose to work in. We find a systematic positive and significant relation between willingness to take risks and measures of occupational earnings risks and employment risk that we derive from a large administrative data set. Patient individuals are significantly more likely to choose for occupations with a steep earnings profile. Individuals whose economic preferences are not well aligned with the riskiness and timing of earnings in their initial occupation are more likely to change to an occupation that better matches their economic preferences.

Keywords: earnings risk; risk preferences; occupational choice; sorting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2014-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (68)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2014, 106, 335-351

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Related works:
Journal Article: Occupational sorting of school graduates: The role of economic preferences (2014)
Working Paper: Occupational sorting of school graduates: The role of economic preferences (2014)
Working Paper: Occupational sorting of school graduates: the role of economic preferences (2014)
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