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Confidence and career choices: An experiment
[working paper]
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Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH
Abstract Confidence in one's own abilities is often seen as an important determinant of being successful. Empirical evidence about how such beliefs about one's own abilities causally influence choices is, however, sparse. In this paper, we use a stylized laboratory experiment to investigate the causal effect... view more
Confidence in one's own abilities is often seen as an important determinant of being successful. Empirical evidence about how such beliefs about one's own abilities causally influence choices is, however, sparse. In this paper, we use a stylized laboratory experiment to investigate the causal effect of an increase in confidence on two important choices made by workers in the labor market: (i) choosing between jobs with a payment scheme that depends heavily on ability [high earnings risk] and those that pay a fixed wage [low earnings risk], and (ii) the subsequent choice of how much effort to exert within the job. We find that an exogenous increase in confidence leads to an increase in subjects' propensity to choose payment schemes that depend heavily on ability. This is detrimental for low ability workers due to high baseline levels of confidence.... view less
Classification
Applied Psychology
Free Keywords
beliefs; career choices; experiment; overconfidence; real-effort
Document language
English
Publication Year
2020
City
Berlin
Page/Pages
51 p.
Series
Discussion Papers / Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Forschungsschwerpunkt Markt und Entscheidung, Abteilung Ökonomik des Wandels, SP II 2018-301r2
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/10419/221821
Status
Published Version; reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications