CeDEx Seminar - Nikos Nikiforakis (NYU Abu Dhabi)

Overlooked no more: race, ethnicity, gender and psychological attributes

Abstract: 

Psychological attributes such as an individual’s willingness to engage in competition and take risks have received considerable attention by social scientists and policy makers alike as they individually predict income and educational attainment. The evidence concerning these attributes, however, is typically obtained from white (non-Hispanic) samples thus raising two questions: (i) To what extent are there racial/ethnic differences in these attributes? (ii) Can these differences (if any) help account for income differences between whites and non-whites? We recruit a large sample of the US working population. The sample is stratified by race/ethnicity and gender, which allows us to obtain precise estimates for each race/ethnicity – gender group. We collect a wealth of information including different measures of competitiveness, overconfidence, and risk attitudes, as well as information on education, other demographics, and individual incomes. We find substantial racial/ethnic differences between Whites and people of color (Blacks and Hispanic) in all psychological attributes. We also find that these attributes individually predict income and educational attainment.