Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/101931 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 8355
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
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.
Subjects: 
risk preferences
earnings risk
sorting
occupational choice
JEL: 
J24
J31
D01
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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