Parental Investment and the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Preferences and Attitudes

29 Pages Posted: 1 Aug 2013

See all articles by Maria Zumbühl

Maria Zumbühl

Maastricht University

Thomas J. Dohmen

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); Maastricht University - Business Investment Research Center (BIRC)

Gerard A. Pfann

Maastricht University; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

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Date Written: July 31, 2013

Abstract

We study empirically whether there is scope for parents to shape the economic preferences and attitudes of their children through purposeful investments. We exploit information on the risk and trust attitudes of parents and their children, as well as rich information about parental efforts in the upbringing of their children from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study. Our results show that parents who invest more in the upbringing of their children are more similar to them with respect to risk and trust attitudes and thus transmit their own attitudes more strongly. The results are robust to including variables on the relationship between children and parents, family size, and the parents’ socioeconomic background.

Keywords: parental investments, risk preferences, trust, intergenerational transmission, cultural economics, family economics, social interactions

JEL Classification: D80, J12, J13, J62, Z13

Suggested Citation

Zumbühl, Maria and Dohmen, Thomas and Pfann, Gerard Antonie, Parental Investment and the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Preferences and Attitudes (July 31, 2013). SOEPpaper No. 570, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2304090 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2304090

Maria Zumbühl (Contact Author)

Maastricht University ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, Limburg 6200MD
Netherlands

Thomas Dohmen

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Maastricht University - Business Investment Research Center (BIRC) ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, 6200 MD
Netherlands
+31-43-388 3832 (Phone)
+31-43-388 4856 (Fax)

Gerard Antonie Pfann

Maastricht University ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, 6200 MD
Netherlands
+31-43-388 3832 (Phone)
+31-43-388 4856 (Fax)

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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