Individual’s risk attitudes in sub-Saharan Africa : Determinants and reliability of self-reported risk in Burkina Faso
(2021) In African Review of Economics and Finance 13(1). p.166-192- Abstract
- Understanding individual risk taking is an important topic in Africa, as access to financial institutions and social security is scarce, and where markets and government policies largely fail to understand investment decisions of poor households. Data on risk attitudes in Africa is limited and the available data collected might not be reliable. We investigate the determinants of risk attitudes in different domains and the reliability of survey data in a sub-Saharan African country, Burkina Faso, using a large representative panel survey of 31,677 individuals from 10,800 households. Our results show that determinants such as individual’s sex and age are significantly associated with willingness to take risk. Reliability differs across... (More)
- Understanding individual risk taking is an important topic in Africa, as access to financial institutions and social security is scarce, and where markets and government policies largely fail to understand investment decisions of poor households. Data on risk attitudes in Africa is limited and the available data collected might not be reliable. We investigate the determinants of risk attitudes in different domains and the reliability of survey data in a sub-Saharan African country, Burkina Faso, using a large representative panel survey of 31,677 individuals from 10,800 households. Our results show that determinants such as individual’s sex and age are significantly associated with willingness to take risk. Reliability differs across determinants of risk taking and risk domains. Women, older individuals or those with high education have more reliable risk measures compared to men, younger individuals or people with low education. Risk taking in traffic has the highest test-retest reliability followed by willingness to take risk in general and financial matters. (Less)
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Understanding individual risk taking is an important topic in Africa, as access to financial institutions and social security is scarce, and where markets and government policies largely fail to understand investment decisions of poor households. Data on risk attitudes in Africa is limited and the available data collected might not be reliable. We investigate the determinants of risk attitudes in different domains and the reliability of survey data in a sub-Saharan African country, Burkina Faso, using a large representative panel survey of 31,677 individuals from 10,800 households. Our results show that determinants such as individual’s sex and age are significantly associated with willingness to take risk. Reliability differs across... (More)
- Understanding individual risk taking is an important topic in Africa, as access to financial institutions and social security is scarce, and where markets and government policies largely fail to understand investment decisions of poor households. Data on risk attitudes in Africa is limited and the available data collected might not be reliable. We investigate the determinants of risk attitudes in different domains and the reliability of survey data in a sub-Saharan African country, Burkina Faso, using a large representative panel survey of 31,677 individuals from 10,800 households. Our results show that determinants such as individual’s sex and age are significantly associated with willingness to take risk. Reliability differs across determinants of risk taking and risk domains. Women, older individuals or those with high education have more reliable risk measures compared to men, younger individuals or people with low education. Risk taking in traffic has the highest test-retest reliability followed by willingness to take risk in general and financial matters. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/daf45775-0c15-436d-aa10-7762fa8801a8
- author
- Sepahvand, Mohammad H. LU and Shahbazian, Roujman
- publishing date
- 2021-06-08
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Risk attitudes, Determinants of risk taking, Test-retest reliability, Burkina Faso
- in
- African Review of Economics and Finance
- volume
- 13
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 26 pages
- ISSN
- 2042-1478
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- Funding Information: The data used in this study were collected through a government cooperation project between the National Institute of Statistics and Demography (INSD, Institut National de la Statistique et de la Démographie) of Burkina Faso and Statistics Sweden (SCB), which provided the technical assistance. The project was financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida, or in French: Agence suédoise de coopération internationale au développement, Asdi). The data that support the findings of this study are available from INSD, but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and thus are not publicly available. Instructions for how other researchers can obtain the data, and all the information needed to proceed from the dataset to the results of the paper (including code), are, however, available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and with permission of INSD.
- id
- daf45775-0c15-436d-aa10-7762fa8801a8
- alternative location
- https://www.african-review.com/view-paper.php?serial=20210608100910-321431
- date added to LUP
- 2022-11-29 23:28:13
- date last changed
- 2022-11-30 13:26:30
@article{daf45775-0c15-436d-aa10-7762fa8801a8,
abstract = {{Understanding individual risk taking is an important topic in Africa, as access to financial institutions and social security is scarce, and where markets and government policies largely fail to understand investment decisions of poor households. Data on risk attitudes in Africa is limited and the available data collected might not be reliable. We investigate the determinants of risk attitudes in different domains and the reliability of survey data in a sub-Saharan African country, Burkina Faso, using a large representative panel survey of 31,677 individuals from 10,800 households. Our results show that determinants such as individual’s sex and age are significantly associated with willingness to take risk. Reliability differs across determinants of risk taking and risk domains. Women, older individuals or those with high education have more reliable risk measures compared to men, younger individuals or people with low education. Risk taking in traffic has the highest test-retest reliability followed by willingness to take risk in general and financial matters.}},
author = {{Sepahvand, Mohammad H. and Shahbazian, Roujman}},
issn = {{2042-1478}},
keywords = {{Risk attitudes; Determinants of risk taking; Test-retest reliability; Burkina Faso}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{06}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{166--192}},
series = {{African Review of Economics and Finance}},
title = {{Individual’s risk attitudes in sub-Saharan Africa : Determinants and reliability of self-reported risk in Burkina Faso}},
url = {{https://www.african-review.com/view-paper.php?serial=20210608100910-321431}},
volume = {{13}},
year = {{2021}},
}