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A number of theoretical models of educational decision-making assume that education is a risky investment, but the empirical evidence of those risks is scant. This article analyses the link between educational failure and future adverse outcomes using Swedish register data. Drawing on the concept of risk inherent in the Breen-Goldthorpe model of educational decision-making—that staying on in school and failing leads to downward mobility—this article estimates the risk of university dropout in terms of future labour market exclusion, where dropouts are compared to never entrants of tertiary education. To rule out unobserved differences between the groups, sibling fixed effects are paired with controls for ability, non-cognitive skills, and life course events. The results show scarring effects of university dropout on labour market marginalization, although the scarring effects are small. This lends some support for the assumption that entering higher levels of education involves a risk of downward mobility.

We introduce uncertainty into Holmstrom and Milgrom (1987) to study optimal long-term contracting with learning. In a dynamic relationship, the agent's shirking not only reduces current performance, but also increases the agent's information rent due to the persistent belief manipulation effect. We characterize the optimal contract using the dynamic programming technique in which information rent is the unique state variable. In the optimal contract, the optimal effort is front-loaded and stochastically decreases over time. Furthermore, the optimal contract exhibits an option-like feature in that incentives increase after good performance. Implications about managerial incentives and asset management compensations are discussed.

This paper uses social learning theory to examine the influence of parental role models in entrepreneurial families. We distinguish between paternal and maternal role models and investigate how their influence on offsprings' decision to become self-employed is moderated by personality, specifically the offsprings' openness. We use data on 461 alumni from eight German universities. Our results show not only that the presence of a parental role model increases the likelihood that individuals become self-employed, but that the influence of role models also depends on the individual's openness. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on entrepreneurial families, role models, and the psychology of the entrepreneur.

Using an experiment to measure overconfidence and preferences for competitiveness and risk, this article investigates whether these measures explain gender differences in college major choices and expected future earnings. We find that individuals who are overconfident and overly competitive expect to earn significantly more. In addition, gender differences in overconfidence and competitiveness explain 18% of the gender gap in earnings expectations. These experimental measures explain as much of the gender gap in earnings expectations as a rich set of control variables. While expected earnings are related to college major choices, the experimental measures are not related with college major choice.

\"Much research has tried to explain why some people, but not others, choose to become entrepreneurs. The cognitive approach provides a useful insight to explore the entrepreneur-related phenomena through perceptions and intentions. Cross-national studies of this kind are rare, since large international surveys are needed. In this sense, the GEM-project questionnaire includes some questions about entrepreneurial perceptions of the adult population. Thus, the main objective of this paper is building a theoretical framework of entrepreneurial perceptions and testing their influence on entrepreneurial intentions with GEM data. This may allow overcoming some of the weaknesses of previous studies in entrepreneurial intentions. Three kinds of perceptions are identified: individual perceptions, perceptions about entrepreneurial opportunities, and socio-cultural perceptions. Their effect on intentions is tested along with some control variables. Results confirm that these perceptions are relevant variables in explaining the entrepreneurial intention of individuals across nations. At the same time, results from this paper would contribute to the opening up of a new line of analysis using GEM-project data: the conception stage of the new venture process; that is, the study of potential entrepreneurs.\" (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku). Die Untersuchung enthält quantitative Daten. Forschungsmethode: empirisch-quantitativ; empirisch. Die Untersuchung bezieht sich auf den Zeitraum 2004 bis 2004.

Context: This article aims to determine the entrepreneurial skills of Vocational Secondary School students after the implementation of a new curriculum that promotes entrepreneurship courses in Indonesia. The authors believe that after taking such courses, students will be able to generate entrepreneurial skills. This study also explores the effect of demographic characteristics on students' entrepreneurship skills level, especially with respect to gender, school, and family. Approach: This study used a quantitative approach, with data collected through a questionnaire with five variables, that is, leadership, reflective communication, risk-taking, creatively innovative, and future orientation. Data were collected from 463 students who had taken entrepreneurship subjects that were chosen randomly. Data were analyzed using linear regression. Findings: 52.22% of our respondents had a moderate score for entrepreneurial skills, this is not in accordance with the expected learning outcomes, there are students who have entrepreneurial skills at a high level. With respect to creative innovation, in particular, a majority (53.15%) had a low score and 4.1% had a very low score. Moreover, family had a significant and positive effect on all dependent variables (leadership scores, reflective communication scores, risk-taking scores, creatively innovative scores, future orientation scores, and overall entrepreneurial skills scores). School demographic characteristics had a significant positive effect on the value of future orientation. These results indicate that private schools tend to strengthen the level of reflective communicative scores. Conclusion: The entrepreneurial skills of most vocational students are middling. This indicates that entrepreneurship subjects at Vocational Secondary schools have not been able to achieve their expected learning outcomes or help students develop entrepreneurial skills at a high level. Thus, further research is needed to determine the causes behind the problem. Schools are expected to be able to establish harmonious relationships by involving families to support the improvement of an informal learning environment that supports the mastery of entrepreneurial skills of vocational students. (DIPF/Orig.)

Academic Risk-Taking (ART) is a type of student behavioral engagement characterized by uncertainty regarding the outcome. Students for example share their ideas on difficult topics during class. When taking academic risks, students are confronted with the possibility of being perceived as less competent by others. Students and instructors ascribe a beneficial effect to ART, and ART may foster academic achievement by promoting deep learning. Still, research shows that students avoid taking academic risks. This phenomenon is largely unexplained and there is only little research on ART in the context of higher education. This may be due to a lack of short survey instruments. This study addresses this issue by proposing an extensive self-report measure to evaluate students' general (G-ART) as well as seminar-specific ART (S-ART). First results indicate that two dimensions of ART, seminar group and peer context, may be differentiated. The third dimension of instructor context shows low consistency and needs to be revised. Possible applications of the scale include closer exploration of the nature of the construct ART regarding stability over time and different contexts. The instrument enables analyzing possible social and gender disparities as well as the relationship between seminar characteristics, ART, and academic achievement. (DIPF/Orig.) Akademische Risikobereitschaft (ART) ist eine Form der behavioralen Partizipation und wird durch die Unsicherheit Studierender bezüglich des Ergebnisses einer Lernsituation charakterisiert. Dies ist beispielsweise der Fall, wenn Studierende während Seminaren ihre Ideen zu schwierigen Themen teilen. Gehen Studierende akademische Risiken ein, sind sie mit der Möglichkeit konfrontiert, von anderen als weniger kompetent wahrgenommen zu werden. Studierende und Dozierende schreiben ART einen lernförderlichen Effekt zu und ART kann durch die Unterstützung tiefen Lernens positiv auf akademischen Erfolg wirken. Dennoch werden akademische Risiken von Studierenden gemieden. Dieses Phänomen ist weitgehend unerklärt, es existiert nur wenig Forschung zu ART im Hochschulbereich. Dies kann auf einen Mangel an simplen Erhebungsinstrumenten zurückzuführen sein. Die vorliegende Studie befasst sich mit diesem Problem durch die Entwicklung eines umfassenden Selbstauskunftsinstruments, das ART sowohl in allgemeinen (G-ART) als auch in seminarspezifischen (S-ART) Kontexten erfasst. Erste Ergebnisse deuten auf die Differenzierung von zwei Dimensionen hin: Seminargruppe und Peer-Kontext. Die dritte Dimension, der Dozentenkontext, weist eine geringe Konsistenz auf und benötigt weitere Überarbeitung. Mögliche Anwendungen der Skala umfassen die nähere Untersuchung der Beschaffenheit des Konstrukts ART hinsichtlich der Stabilität über die Zeit und verschiedene Kontexte hinweg, die Analyse möglicher sozialer und geschlechtsspezifischer Disparitäten sowie die Beziehung zu Seminarcharakteristika und akademischem Erfolg. (DIPF/Orig.)

Enhancing the reduction of avoidance may optimize treatment for anxiety disorders. Past research focused on boosting fear extinction to reduce avoidance, however, with limited success. Directly extinguishing avoidance may be more promising. This preregistered study tested the impact of incentives and instruction for non-avoidance compared to passive fear extinction on long-term avoidance and fear reduction. On Day 1, participants acquired conditioned fear and avoidance to a conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with an aversive outcome. Next, incentives or instructions encouraged non-avoidance to the CS, which was no longer reinforced by a US regardless of avoidance (Incentives and Instruction group). In a third group, avoidance was unavailable and the CS was passively presented in absence of the US (Passive Fear Extinction group). On Day 2, avoidance retention and reinstatement and return of fear were tested. In the short term, incentives and instruction strongly reduced avoidance with similar fear reduction compared to passive fear extinction. Importantly, incentives and instruction were linked to lower long-term avoidance retention. Avoidance reinstatement was evident in all groups, but avoidance remained higher after passive fear extinction. Finally, incentives yielded a lower return of threat expectancies. Thus, targeting avoidance instead of fear better reduced long-term avoidance and, for incentives, the return of fear. Especially, incentives could be a promising add-on to exposure.

We analyse worker self-selection, with a special focus on teachers, to explore whether worker composition is generally endogenous. We analyse laboratory experimental data to provide causal evidence on particular sorting patterns. Our field data analysis focuses specifically on selection patterns of teachers. We find that teachers are more risk averse than employees in other professions, indicating that relatively risk averse individuals sort into teaching occupations under the current system. Using survey measures on trust and reciprocity we find that teachers trust more and are less negatively reciprocal than other employees, and establish differences in personality based on the Big Five concept.

How important to well-being is choosing a career with the right fit? We estimate a model of career choice in a setting where we observe the income risk of chosen careers and the risk aversion of the people who choose them. The key parameter of interest representing the importance of idiosyncratic taste and skill in career choice is identified from the shift in the distribution of income risk with risk aversion. We document that those who self-identify as risk tolerant are more likely to have volatile incomes. However, this correlation is far from perfect. The model gives this weak correlation an economic interpretation: idiosyncratic fit is an important determinant of career choice. We separate idiosyncratic career taste from skill using the pay gap between high- and low-income-risk people with high and low risk aversion.