TY  - JOUR
A1  - Caliendo, Marco
A1  - Cobb-Clark, Deborah A.
A1  - Obst, Cosima
A1  - Uhlendorff, Arne
T1  - Risk preferences and training investments
T2  - Journal of economic behavior & organization
N2  - We analyze workers’ risk preferences and training investments. Our conceptual framework differentiates between the investment risk and insurance mechanisms underpinning training decisions. Investment risk leads risk-averse workers to train less; they undertake more training if it insures them against future losses. We use the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) to demonstrate that risk affinity is associated with more training, implying that, on average, investment risks dominate the insurance benefits of training. Crucially, this relationship is evident only for general training; there is no relationship between risk attitudes and specific training. Thus, consistent with our conceptual framework, risk preferences matter more when skills are transferable – and workers have a vested interest in training outcomes – than when they are not. Finally, we provide evidence that the insurance benefits of training are concentrated among workers with uncertain employment relationships or limited access to public insurance schemes.
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/61771
SN  - 0167-2681
VL  - 205
SP  - 668
EP  - 686
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -