Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/73674 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research No. 546
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
The article analyzes the question of whether career politicians differ systematically from the general population in terms of their attitudes toward risk. A written survey of members of the 17th German Bundestag in late 2011 identified their risk attitudes, and the survey data was set in relation to respondents to the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) for the survey year 2009 (2002 through 2012). Compared with the population surveyed in the SOEP, members of the German parliament display a considerably higher general risk appe-tite, which is highly significant. For different areas of risk, last surveyed in the SOEP in 2009, the members of parliament had significantly stronger risk-loving attitudes across vir-tually all indicators and risk categories surveyed than the comparison groups of SOEP re-spondents.
Subjects: 
political decision-making
risk aversion
German parliament
SOEP
JEL: 
D71
D78
H11
H70
P16
Z13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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