VET, Patience and the Wealth of Nations

Behavioral economics describe how preferences, experience, and individual characteristics relate to learning and choices, and therefore determine economic behavior. According to (economic) choice theories, patience is a key driving factor behind economic development as it affects economic behavior, as visible in health, crime, etc. Recent research sets up the relationship between patience and economic developments. It becomes clear that patience is strongly correlated to parameters like years of schooling, innovation, risk preferences and GDP per capita. We are interested in the connection between patience and the investment in initial and continuing vocational education and training (VET) in different European countries. This article examines whether there is a correlation between patience and the investments of the state and companies in vocational education and training (VET) in different European countries. We used a sample of European countries and correlated their values of patience (from the Global Preference Survey) with public investment in vocational training, with firm participation in vocational education and training and with enterprise expenditures on CVET. Our results indicate that there is a relationship between patience and the companies’ participation in training.