Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/108876 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
Diskussionsbeiträge No. 2015/9
Publisher: 
Freie Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaft, Berlin
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.
Subjects: 
risk aversion
risk preferences
preference stability
parenthood
children
gender differences
JEL: 
D1
D81
J13
J16
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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