Mobility, risk tolerance and competence to manage risks

Journal of Risk Research, 2011

Although risk and uncertainty are intrinsic to human migration, there is surprisingly little explicit research on the willingness to take risks in this context. This paper analyses whether migrants are more or less likely than non-migrants to be risk tolerant, and whether these differences are gendered. Attitudes are explored in terms of responses under conditions of both risk and uncertainty, and self assessment of capabilities is also taken into account. The research is based on a sample of students who provide a relatively homogeneous group in socio-economic terms, and relatively large numbers of individuals with experiences of temporary migration. Their attitudes to risk were assessed under experimental conditions, which measured their willingness to take risks on hypothetical gambles under different conditions. While there are some differences between males and females, and between migrants and non-migrants, but the outstanding finding is the far greater risk tolerance of female migrants as opposed to female non-migrants, especially when compared to males.

2006

Acknowledgements: The authors thank seminar participants at IZA, Rutgers University and the Virginia Commonwealth University for comments. David Jaeger thanks IZA for support It has long been hypothesized that attitudes towards risk play a central role in determining whether an individual migrates, but the empirical evidence, to the extent that it exists, has been indirect. In this paper, we use newly-available data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (GSOEP) to directly measure the relationship between migration propensities and attitudes towards. We find that individuals who migrate between labor markets in Germany are more willing to take risks. This result is robust to stratifying by age, sex, education, national origin, and a variety of other demographic characteristics, as well as to the level of aggregation used to define geographic mobility. We estimate a variety of cross-sectional and panel models and find that being relatively willing to take risks is associated with an in...

Although risk and uncertainty are intrinsic to human migration, there is surprisingly little explicit research on the willingness to take risks in this context. This paper analyses whether migrants are more or less likely than non-migrants to be risk tolerant, and whether these differences are gendered. Attitudes are explored in terms of responses under conditions of both risk and uncertainty, and self assessment of capabilities is also taken into account. The research is based on a sample of students who provide a relatively homogeneous group in socio-economic terms, and relatively large numbers of individuals with experiences of temporary migration. Their attitudes to risk were assessed under experimental conditions, which measured their willingness to take risks on hypothetical gambles under different conditions. While there are some differences between males and females, and between migrants and non-migrants, but the outstanding finding is the far greater risk tolerance of female migrants as opposed to female non-migrants, especially when compared to males.

Review of Economics and Statistics, 2010

Geographic mobility is important for the functioning of labor markets because it brings labor resources to where they can be most efficiently used. It has long been hypothesized that individuals' migration propensities depend on their attitudes towards risk, but the empirical evidence, to the extent that it exists, has been indirect. In this paper, we use newly available data from the German Socio-Economic Panel to measure directly the relationship between migration propensities and attitudes towards risk. We find that individuals who are more willing to take risks are more likely to migrate between labor markets in Germany. This result is robust to stratifying by age, sex, education, national origin, and a variety of other demographic characteristics, as well as to the level of aggregation used to define geographic mobility. The effect is substantial relative to the unconditional migration propensity and compared to the conventional determinants of migration. We also find that being more willing to take risks is more important for the extensive than for the intensive margin of migration.

China Economic Review, 2015

Risk Attitudes and Migration * 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.

Population, Space and Place, 2012

Risk shapes, and is shaped by, migration but while widely acknowledged, this is unevenly and mostly only implicitly theorised and analysed. Starting from the distinction between risk and uncertainty, the paper contrasts the different approaches of economics and sociology to theorising risk, in terms of scale, social constructionism, and being informed by risk as opposed to being at risk. It reviews the extent to which six theoretical approaches have been, and could be, applied to migration, risk and uncertainty: human capital, risk tolerance, new economics of migration, risk and culture, risk society and governmentality.

2021

Moving particularly to a new country is a risky endeavour. People who choose to migrate are often thought to be more adventurous and risk-loving than their nonmobile counterparts. Robust empirical evidence on the risk attitudes of migrants is limited, however, particularly for migrants originating from high-income countries such as Germany. This study examines whether the risk attitudes of internationally mobile Germans (‘movers’) indeed differ significantly from those of their nonmobile counterparts (‘stayers’), and whether significant differences can be observed in the risk attitudes of emigrants and remigrants. We also examine the effect of geographical and cultural distance between Germany and the destination country, predicting that it takes more courage to move to a more distant country. Living and working abroad is becoming an increasingly important feature of individual careers at least in highly developed democratic welfare states (Erlinghagen et al. 2009). International mo...

This article explores the relationships between person-centred, competence-based, and culturally-determined risk-taking on the one hand and attitudes to international travel and migration on the other. We based the research on a sample of 540 young people, aged nineteen to thirty-five years, from nine European countries. This study firstly examines attitudes to risk about international travel. Eight deterrents to travel are looked at: poor hygiene, health concerns, weather, crime/terrorism, poor accommodation, political unrest, local customs/religion and natural disasters. Next, we explore selfassessed competence about international migration. Finally, the relationships between the perceived costs/benefits of international migration on the one hand and attitudes to the risks involved in international migration, on the other hand, are analysed. Non-parametric tests and the ANOVA procedure indicate that gender-based “risk traits” may influence the willingness of individuals to take risks in about international travel and migration. Attitudes to risk, however, may also be informed by self-perceived competence regarding international travel and migration. The importance of cross-cultural differences (proxied by region of origin) to attitudes towards risk represents perhaps the most interesting result of this research. Differences in attitudes to risk by participants from the North and South/East of Europe were robust and pervasive across most domains of international travel and migration.

Applied Economics Letters, 2009

This paper questions the perceived wisdom that migrants are more risk-loving than the native population. We employ a new large German survey of direct individual risk measures to find that first-generation migrants have lower risk attitudes than natives, which only equalize in the second generation. JEL classification: D1; D81; F22; J15; J16; J31; J62; J82

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