Risk Attitudes and Migration

25 Pages Posted: 28 Sep 2015

See all articles by Mehtap Akgüc

Mehtap Akgüc

Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS); IZA

Xingfei Liu

Concordia University, Quebec

Massimiliano Tani

University of New South Wales - Australian Defence Force Academy; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Klaus F. Zimmermann

Global Labor Organization (GLO); UNU-MERIT; Maastricht University, Department of Economics; Free University Berlin; University of Bonn; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Journal of Population Economics

Abstract

To contribute to a scarce literature, in particular for developing and emerging economies, we study the nature of measured risk attitudes and their consequences for migration. We also investigate whether substantial changes in the risk environment influences risk tolerance. Using the 2009 RUMiC data for China, we find that rural-urban migrants and their family members are substantially less risk-averse than stayers. We further provide evidence that individual risk attitudes are unaffected by substantial changes in the environment and that risk tolerance is correlated across generations.

Keywords: risk aversion, risk attitudes, migration, China

JEL Classification: J61, D81

Suggested Citation

Akgüc, Mehtap and Liu, Xingfei and Tani, Massimiliano and Zimmermann, Klaus F., Risk Attitudes and Migration. IZA Discussion Paper No. 9347, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2665885 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2665885

Mehtap Akgüc (Contact Author)

Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) ( email )

Brussels

IZA ( email )

Brussels

Xingfei Liu

Concordia University, Quebec ( email )

Massimiliano Tani

University of New South Wales - Australian Defence Force Academy ( email )

Sydney, NSW 2052
Australia
+612 6268 8512 (Phone)
+612 6248 8450 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/sbus/staff_cvs/about_max_t.html

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Klaus F. Zimmermann

Global Labor Organization (GLO) ( email )

Bonn
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://https://glabor.org/

UNU-MERIT ( email )

Keizer Karelplein 19
Maastricht, 6211TC
Netherlands

Maastricht University, Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, Limburg 6200MD
Netherlands

University of Bonn

Postfach 2220
Bonn, D-53012
Germany

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Journal of Population Economics

Tiergartenstr. 17
D-69121 Heidelberg
Germany

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