The immigrant-native gap in risk and time preferences in Germany: levels, socio-economic determinants, and recent changes

Abstract

We present new descriptive evidence on the immigrant-native gap in risk and time preferences in Germany, one of immigrants’ most preferred destination countries. Using the recent waves of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) dataset, we find that the immigrant-native gap in risk preferences has widened for recent immigration cohorts, especially around the time of the 2015 European Refugee Crisis. We attribute the recent widening to decreased assimilation rates of new immigrants caused by reduced integration due to sudden increases in immigrants flows from culturally diverse parts of the world, particularly around the year 2015.