Parenthood and Risk Preferences

Katja Görlitz and Marcus Tamm

No 552, Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen

Abstract: This study analyzes how risk attitudes change when individuals become parents using longitudinal data for a large and representative sample of individuals. The results show that men and women experience a considerable increase in risk aversion which already starts as early as two years before becoming a parent, is largest shortly after giving birth and disappears when the child becomes older. These findings show that parenthood leads to considerable changes in individual risk attitudes over time. Thus, analyses using risk preferences as the explanatory variable for economic outcomes should be careful in interpreting the findings as causal effects.

Keywords: risk aversion; risk preferences; preference stability; parenthood; children; gender differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 D81 J13 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-upt
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/110336/1/825616050.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Parenthood and Risk Preferences (2015)
Working Paper: Parenthood and Risk Preferences (2015)
Working Paper: Parenthood and risk preferences (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:rwirep:552

DOI: 10.4419/86788630

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