Stated and revealed heterogeneous risk preferences in educational choice

We develop a structural microeconometric model of educational choice with unobserved heterogeneity in risk aversion and estimate the model parameters using panel survey data. We assess the credibility of the model by linking the estimated structural parameters of risk aversion to the self-reported willingness to take risks, which is directly elicited in the survey. The risk aversion parameters revealed from educational choices decrease with the willingness to take risks stated by the survey respondents. This indicates consistency between stated and revealed risk preferences. We suggest that this method could be applied more generally to support or reject the joint validity of structural models and survey measures of preferences.