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Title: Consumer Risk Preferences and Higher Education Enrollment Decisions
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Heckman, Stuart J.
Montalto, Catherine Phillips
Consumer Risk Preferences and Higher Education Enrollment Decisions
Journal of Consumer Affairs 52,1 (Spring 2018): 166-196.
Also: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/joca.12139
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI)
Keyword(s): College Enrollment; Human Capital; Risk-Taking

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Although there are widespread concerns that consumers are making poor choices regarding higher education, the fact that human capital investments are risky is often overlooked in the national conversation. Therefore, this research investigates the effect of risk preferences on higher education enrollment decisions. A sample from the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) was analyzed, and the results indicate that consumer risk preferences have a significant effect on the likelihood of enrollment. Specifically, there was a robust, positive relationship between risk tolerance and the likelihood of enrollment even after controlling for time preferences and risk perceptions. Consistent with previous findings, ability, parental education, family net worth and income, and being female were positively associated with the likelihood of enrollment. The results suggest that risk preferences may be an important source of omitted variable bias in previous studies of higher education investment choices.
Bibliography Citation
Heckman, Stuart J. and Catherine Phillips Montalto. "Consumer Risk Preferences and Higher Education Enrollment Decisions." Journal of Consumer Affairs 52,1 (Spring 2018): 166-196.