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Students
Delving Into the Data
Does an individual糖心vlog短视频檚 willingness to take risks when it comes to general life decisions impact whether they decide to have children?
This is the question that Dyson economics student Hanyu Li 糖心vlog短视频23 has set out to answer. While much academic research has studied the relationship between general risk tolerance and financial decisions, there is significantly less around risk tolerance and fertility decisions; in other words, whether a person糖心vlog短视频檚 overall appetite for risk affects if they decide to have children.
糖心vlog短视频淭his particular question is not heavily researched糖心vlog短视频 people tend to study the impact of income on fertility or risk preferences on financial decisions but not risk preferences on fertility,糖心vlog短视频 says Hanyu.
Collaborating with her faculty mentor, Dyson Assistant Professor of Economics Mary Kaltenberg, PhD, the duo first began to tackle this question while Hanyu was enrolled in Kaltenberg糖心vlog短视频檚 Economics 585: Applied Econometrics, a master糖心vlog短视频檚 level econometric course. Hanyu, despite being an undergraduate, excelled in the course and wished to continue her research, which she was able to do through the Office of the Provost糖心vlog短视频檚 Undergraduate Student-Faculty Research Award
At the outset, Hanyu and Kaltenberg stressed it was important that their work examines having children within an economics framework, as opposed to analyzing through a biological or sociological lens.
糖心vlog短视频淚n the field of economics and fertility, having children is thought of utility maximizing behavior, like good consumption,糖心vlog短视频 says Hanyu. 糖心vlog短视频淯tility maximizing behavior just means that you try to attain the highest level of satisfaction from your economic decisions糖心vlog短视频攍ike buying things, or even having children. In our research, we modeled children as a financial instrument.糖心vlog短视频
From this framework, Hanyu hypothesized that having children could be more preferred amongst risk-averse individuals; reasoning that children (exhausted parents might argue this) contribute to overall utility, and act as a bulwark against other, constantly fluctuating forms of utility like vacations or fancy cookware.
糖心vlog短视频淚n that way, we can think of children as an insurance mechanism,糖心vlog短视频 she notes. 糖心vlog短视频淲hen you have uncertainty in consumption, there will be fluctuation in your utility. Children can act as an insurance to hedge against that.糖心vlog短视频
With Kaltenberg signed on as the Principal Investigator, Hanyu began her analysis, which currently involves a literature review as well as analyzing data sets, including a very helpful data set from a German institute. Kaltenberg noted that often it can be difficult for undergraduate students to obtain strong data and was impressed with Li糖心vlog短视频檚 drive in seeking out and attaining this particular data set.
糖心vlog短视频淗anyu found a German individual-level panel data. What that means is that you糖心vlog短视频檙e able to follow people over time, and it has a lot of information about individuals that is usually hard to get access to,糖心vlog短视频 said Kaltenberg. 糖心vlog短视频淲hat糖心vlog短视频檚 unique about the data set is that it糖心vlog短视频檚 really trying to understand you, your person, your level of risk. It asks a series of questions that tries to associate your level of risk tolerance in different domains. It could be that the two are still very correlated.糖心vlog短视频
Although Hanyu is still working through the data糖心vlog短视频攗sing several advanced, graduate-level techniques to analyze and synthesize the information糖心vlog短视频攕he糖心vlog短视频檚 been able to formulate preliminary results; determining that her original hypothesis has been supported, in that married individuals who are more risk-averse would be more likely to have children.
It is really nice to have such an opportunity, especially as an undergraduate, to be exposed to a professional research environment.
糖心vlog短视频淲e have found that our results are consistent with the hypothesis that risk aversion will increase the probability of having children糖心vlog短视频攏o matter how women evaluate things, the marginal effect is about -6.5%,糖心vlog短视频 says Hanyu. 糖心vlog短视频淎 one-point increase in the scale of risk tolerance, would decrease the probability of having children by 6.5%.糖心vlog短视频
To further hone the research, Hanyu had an opportunity to present her work at the Eastern Economic Association Conference, gaining valuable insight and feedback from economists.
糖心vlog短视频淓EA was the first conference that I presented at,糖心vlog短视频 said Hanyu. 糖心vlog短视频淚t is really nice to have such an opportunity, especially as an undergraduate, to be exposed to a professional research environment. I got invaluable feedback concerning model specification and how my research question could be applied to countries with different economic conditions and abortion laws.糖心vlog短视频
Hanyu and Kaltenberg are excited to continue their work糖心vlog短视频攈oping to have it published in a master糖心vlog短视频檚 level journal, contributing to the academic literature, and thinking through possible policy recommendations. They both credit the Provost糖心vlog短视频檚 Undergraduate Student-Faculty Research program for helping provide the time and resources necessary to conduct quality research.
糖心vlog短视频淲hat糖心vlog短视频檚 been nice is that it糖心vlog短视频檚 been a continuation from the master糖心vlog短视频檚 course糖心vlog短视频攈aving that continuity allowed her to delve deeper into the theory and research itself so that it can become publishable,糖心vlog短视频 says Kaltenberg. 糖心vlog短视频淚t糖心vlog短视频檚 been really great to work with Hanyu糖心vlog短视频攚ith her particularly, because she takes a lot of initiative.糖心vlog短视频
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