An experimental analysis of risk and entrepreneurial attitudes of university students in the USA and Brazil

摘要

There is a long-standing debate about whether entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs differ in risk aversion levels. The paper addresses international differences in risk and entrepreneurial attitudes of university students, specifically in the USA and Brazil. This paper also aims to add to the ongoing debate surrounding the risk attitudes of entrepreneurial persons when compared to non-entrepreneurial persons. The data from the paper was generated from an economic experiment. The economic experiment included a sample of students from both the USA and Brazil. Subjects completed a shortened version of the Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation (EAO) and then participated in an investment game. Subjects in the USA were found to be more entrepreneurial than the sample in Brazil. This held true for two separate definitions of entrepreneurial. There was no difference in the investment decisions between subjects from the two countries. Also, entrepreneurial subjects invested a higher percentage of their money in a risky asset. This is one of the first papers to present results from an internationally conducted economic experiment testing for differences in risk aversion levels between entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial individuals.