Studies on occupational choice, temperament traits, and economic preferences

This dissertation studies the relationship between the occupational choice, temperament traits and economic preferences. The main focus is on managers and self-employed, but the relationship is also examined more generally. The findings show that temperament traits and economic preferences are both related to occupational choice, and their importance varies across occupations.

Occupational choice is a complex process involving multiple choices, ranging from school choices in youth to job search in adulthood. Studies in economics have emphasised the importance of human capital, i.e. skills, education and experience, in occupational choice. The role of personality and economic preferences has also been examined, but studies have focused on the big five personality traits and on studying personality and preferences separately. Thus, knowledge about the full picture and about traits outside the scale used is limited.

Temperament is the stable and innate core of personality. This dissertation examines the relationship between temperament traits: harm avoidance, novelty seeking, reward dependence and persistence, and economic preferences: risk-taking, patience and trust with the occupational choice. Studies in the dissertation use data from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 study, which contains information on people's background, lifestyle, temperament and economic preferences. The data is combined with register data on people's occupation, socio-economic status, marital status, educational performance and income.

Studies in the dissertation show that temperament and economic preferences are linked to occupations. Managers exhibit more pronounced temperament traits, described as curious, impulsive, energetic and self-confidence. Self-employed have stronger economic preferences, especially high risk-taking. Links are also found with other occupational groups. For example, in men, low risk-taking is associated with craft and related trades workers, and plant and machine operators and assemblers. For women, low persistence is associated with clerical support workers, while high persistence is associated with craft and related trades workers.

The results show that temperament and preferences play an important role in occupational choice alongside human capital. Studies shows that, in addition to personality traits, its inheritable core, temperament, is linked to a person's occupation. The results support the idea that people seek occupations that match their temperament and preferences.