Effects of Parental Background on Other-Regarding Preferences in Children

Michal Bauer, Julie Chytilová () and Barbara Pertold-Gębicka

No 6026, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Other-regarding preferences are central for the ability to solve collective action problems and thus for society's welfare. We study how the formation of other-regarding preferences during childhood is related to parental background. Using binary-choice dictator games to classify subjects into other-regarding types, we find that children of less educated parents are less altruistic and more spiteful. This link is robust to controlling for a range of child, family, and peer characteristics, and is attenuated for smarter children. The results suggest that less educated parents are either less efficient to instill social norms or their children less able to acquire them.

Keywords: family background; education; experiments with children; spite; altruism; other-regarding preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 D64 I24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2011-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - revised version published as 'Parental Background and Other-regarding Preferences in Children' in: Experimental Economics, 2014, 17(1), 24-46

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Related works:
Working Paper: Effects of Parental Background on Other-regarding Preferences in Children (2011)
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