Abstract/Summary

Recent papers have modeled the prevalence of risk-tolerance as shaped by growth, making testable predictions about the distribution of risk-tolerance across the globe. We test these predictions using a dataset containing a survey question capturing people’s risk-tolerance for representative samples from 78 countries. We find a negative between-country correlation between risk-tolerance and GDP per capita. Together with the positive within-country correlation between risk-tolerance and income, this results in a risk-income paradox. We further find a negative interaction effect of risk-tolerance and GDP on fertility. These findings provide support for endogenous-preference models of economic growth.