This paper studies the impact of optimism on occupational choice using a general equilibrium framework. The model shows that optimism has four main qualitative effects: it leads to a misallocation of talent, drives up input prices, raises the number of entrepreneurs, and makes entrepreneurs...

This paper studies the impact of optimism on occupational choice using a general equilibrium framework. The model shows that optimism has four main qualitative effects: it leads to a misallocation of talent, drives up input prices, raises the number of entrepreneurs, and makes entrepreneurs...

In a controlled laboratory experiment we use one sample of students and one of mature individuals participating in an executive education entrepreneurship seminar to examine how positive skew influences risky choices. Both groups are found to respond positively to skew. We estimate decision...