This paper analyses the behaviour of TV gameshow contestants to estimate risk aversion. We are able to show that the gameshow participants are broadly representative of the population as a whole. The gameshow has a number of features that makes it well suited for our analysis: the format is...

This paper uses UK data to estimate the returns to schooling. We address the endogeneity of schooling by exploiting the experimental nature of two changes in the minimum school leaving age to instrument eduction. The corrected estimates of the return to education indicate the presence of a large...

We apply the theory of real options to the problem of education choice when returns to education are uncertain. We show that the length of time spent in school will be an increasing function of the risk associated with education and not just the expected return. This fact has been neglected in...

Numerous studies have documented disproportionate increases in wage rates from receiving educational credentials, as opposed to from just years of education. This study shows 'sheepskin effects' in hours of work that are similar to the sheepskin effects in wage rates. Systematic sheepskin...