Susceptibility to Default Training Options Across the Population

27 Pages Posted: 4 Sep 2015

See all articles by Lex Borghans

Lex Borghans

Maastricht University - Department of Economics; University of Maastricht - Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Bart Golsteyn

Maastricht University - Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA); IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Stockholm University - Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the tendency of people to choose default options when offered courses to acquire job related skills. We ask a random sample of Dutch people aged 6-80 which three skills are most important in their (future or past) jobs. Further on in the survey, we randomly select one of the skills the respondent indicated and (hypothetically) offer the respondent a course regarding this skill. The respondent can accept this offer, but can also exchange it for a course regarding one of the two other skills indicated. Our findings indicate that people generally have a strong tendency to choose the default option. This effect is similar across gender and education level. It appears that the effect of the default option is less strong around age 30 and declines after age 60.

Keywords: training, human capital, default option, experiment

JEL Classification: J24, J31, I2

Suggested Citation

Borghans, Lex and Golsteyn, Bart, Susceptibility to Default Training Options Across the Population. IZA Discussion Paper No. 9180, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2655129 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2655129

Lex Borghans (Contact Author)

Maastricht University - Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, 6200 MD
Netherlands

University of Maastricht - Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA) ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, MD6200
Netherlands

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Bart Golsteyn

Maastricht University - Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA) ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, MD6200
Netherlands

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Stockholm University - Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) ( email )

Kyrkgatan 43B
SE-106 91 Stockholm
Sweden

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