Depression, Risk Preferences, and Risk-Taking Behavior

↵Notes: SOEP-IS.2016.2 2014. Controls include the following: sex, age, age², log monthly household income, own and parents’ upper secondary education or higher, household type (single person, couple without children, single parent, couple with children <16y, couple with children 16y+, couple with children <16y and 16y+, multigeneration, other combination [ref. group]), and German born. Nonparametric regressions are binary logit regressions predicting whether the option chosen involved uncertainty (that is, not Option A). Odds ratios are presented. The equation in the structural model is the coefficient of relative risk aversion for a CRRA utility function (see Appendix B in the Online Appendix, Equation B.1); the equation is the probability weighting factor in Equation B.3. Results in Column 3 exclude those who chose Option C in Scenario 4 (see Table 1). Standard errors are in parentheses and are clustered at the individual level. *p < 0.10, ***p < 0.01.

↵Notes: SOEPv33.1i 2004-2016. Controls include: sex, age, age², log monthly household income, own and parents’ upper secondary education or higher, household type (single person, couple without children, single parent, couple with children <16y, couple with children 16y+, couple with children <6y and 16y+, multigeneration, other combination [ref. group]), German born, and year dummies. Effect sizes are calculated as , where is the estimated Depression coefficient and ŷ is the pooled sample mean for the relevant stated risk preference (the effect size is the percentage change from the mean associated with depression). All dependent variables are measured on a 0–10 scale, with higher values indicating greater risk willingness. For the general domain {T} = 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. For the other domains {T} = 2004 and 2014. Standard errors are in parentheses and are clustered at the individual level. *p < 0.01, ***p < 0.01.

↵Notes: SOEPv33.1i 2002–2016. Risky assets = 1 if household owns risky assets (that is, securities other than fixed interest securities, such as shares and variable bonds). Mean = 0.314. No suppl. health insurance = 1 if not currently covered by a supplementary private health insurance policy. Mean = 0.805. Controls include: sex, age, age², log monthly household income, own and parents’ upper secondary education or higher, household type (single person, couple without children, single parent, couple with children <16y, couple with children 16y+, couple with children <16y and 16y+, multigeneration, other combination [ref. group]), German born, and year dummies. Average partial effects are the sample mean change in the predicted probability when going from Depression = 1 to Depression = 0. Standard errors are in parentheses and are clustered at the individual level. Standard errors for average partial effects are calculated using the delta method. **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01.

↵Notes: SOEPv33.1i 2002-2016. Smoker = 1 if current smoker. Mean = 0.308. Poor diet is a categorical variable (1–4 scale) indicating agreement to the statement that they follow a health-conscious diet (1 = strongly agree, 4 = not at all). The distribution from 1–4 is 0.092, 0.419, 0.429, and 0.060. Sedentary = 1 if participates in sports/exercise less than once per week. Mean = 0.581. Controls include: sex, age, age², log monthly household income, own and parents’ upper secondary education or higher, household type (single person, couple without children, single parent, couple with children <16y, couple with children 16y+, couple with children <16y and 16y+, multigeneration, other combination [ref. group]), German born, and year dummies. Average partial effects are the sample mean change in the predicted probability when going from Depression = 1 to Depression = 0. For Poor diet, the average partial effects are the change in predicted probability for each of the four possible responses. Standard errors are in parentheses and are clustered at the individual level. Standard errors for average partial effects are calculated using the delta method. ***p < 0.01.

↵Notes: SOEPv33.1i 2008. Lend belongings is a categorical variable (1–5 scale) indicating the frequency at which the respondent lends belongings to friends (1 = never, 5 = very often). The distribution from 1–5 is 0.167, 0.296, 0.345, 0.160, and 0.032. Lend money is a categorical variable (1–5 scale) indicating the frequency at which the respondent lends money to friends (1 = never, 5 = very often). The distribution from 1–5 is 0.538, 0.319, 0.116, 0.023, and 0.004. Controls include: sex, age, age², log monthly household income, own and parents’ upper secondary education or higher, household type (single person, couple without children, single parent, couple with children <16y, couple with children 16y+, couple with children <16y and 16y+, multigeneration, other combination [ref. group]), and German born. Average partial effects are the sample mean predicted probability for each of the possible responses when going from Depression = 1 to Depression = 0. Robust standard errors are in parentheses. Standard errors for average partial effects are calculated using the delta method. **p< 0.05, ***p< 0.01.

Notes: Panel 1 reports the observed depression-gap in risk-taking behaviors from the results presented in Tables 4, 5, and 6. Panel 2 presents our hypothesis of how each factor (mediator) in Column 1 may affect each risk-taking behavior. Mediators that are expected to close the observed depression-gap in risk-taking behavior when controlling for them in regressions are italicized, while factors that are expected to widen the gap are bold.

↵^aDecreasing absolute risk aversion.

Notes: SOEPv33.1i 2008–2016. All measures are standardized to mean of zero and variance one. All cells are conditional on individual control variables (via linear regression) and account for clustering at the individual level. Controls include: sex, age, age², log monthly household income, own and parents’ upper secondary education or higher, household type (single person, couple without children, single parent, couple with children <16y, couple with children 16y+, couple with children <16y and 16y+, multigeneration, other combination [ref. group]), and German born.

↵Notes: SOEPv33.1i 2008–2016. Controls are included in each estimation. Standard errors are in parentheses and are clustered at the individual level. **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01.

↵Notes: SOEPv33.1i 2008–2016. Controls are included in each estimation. Standard errors are in parentheses and are clustered at the individual level. ***p < 0.01.