Using the panel data on the German and Ukrainian labor markets, Prof. Pignatti and his co-authors Thomas Dohmen (University of Bonn, Maastricht University, IZA and DIW, Berlin) and Hartmut Lehmann (University of Bologna, IZA and DIW, Berlin) show that risk attitudes have permanent (exogenous) determinants that are valid at different stages of economic development and in different structural contexts. At the same time, they find that people tend to take less risk in bad times, such as during the Great Recession. This tendency to play it safe is reflected in reduced entry into self-employment. In other words, people prefer low-risk low-return jobs to starting high-risk high-return businesses. As a result, recovery from profound (and extensive) economic crises tends to be particularly hard.

The paper “Time-varying individual risk attitudes over the Great Recession: A comparison of Germany and Ukraine” was published in the Journal of Comparative Economics and is available here. The discussion paper version of the paper is freely accessible here.

Established in 1977, the Journal of Comparative Economics is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Elsevier on behalf of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies. The mission of the Journal is to lead the new orientations of research in comparative economics.

Prof. Pignatti currently teaches Economics of Energy Markets, Cost-Benefit Analysis, and Program Evaluation at ISET. His research interests are labor economics (with a particular emphasis on labor markets of developing and transition countries), sustainable development, and, more generally, policy studies.