Abstract Studies on structural education choice models are often inconsistent in choosing whether and how to include disutility of education, especially in an environment with risk and wealth inequality. We show that adding a disutility term to the education decision, a human capital investment option, is equivalent to assuming a relationship between wealth, risk, and education. Utility gain from education is increasing in the riskiness of future consumption. A riskier environment further propels an agent to choose the human capital investment option that maximizes future income. If the degree of risk increases heterogeneously across multiple human capital investment options, risk aversion and the precautionary savings motive can compound or negate each other depending which option has a greater increase in risk.

中文翻译：

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学校教育的不效用有多重要？

摘要 结构性教育选择模型的研究在选择是否以及如何包括教育的不效用方面往往不一致，尤其是在风险和财富不平等的环境中。我们表明，在教育决策（一种人力资本投资选项）中添加一个无效项，相当于假设财富、风险和教育之间存在关系。在未来消费的风险中，教育的效用收益正在增加。风险更高的环境进一步促使代理人选择能够最大化未来收入的人力资本投资选项。如果风险程度在多个人力资本投资选项之间异质性增加，则风险规避和预防性储蓄动机可以相互叠加或抵消，具体取决于哪个选项的风险增加更大。