Does Education Increase Risk Aversion in Households? Some Evidence Using Artefactual Experiments in Peru
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47872/laer.v30.22Keywords:
Experiments, Surveys, Risk Attitudes, Education, Latin AmericaAbstract
We provide empirical evidence that supports a causal link from education to risk attitudes when using representative data from representative surveys and artefactual or lab-on-the field experiments in Lima, Peru. We employ three standard experimental measures of risk attitudes and find that each of them is positively correlated with years of education. We suggest that this relationship may be causal as we take advantage of an identification strategy that exploits an exogenous boom in construction of new schools in Lima, which allows us to provide evidence that, in fact, more education may increase risk attitudes. Our findings are further confirmed when applying a broad set of robustness tests.
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