Elite Persistence in Family: The Role of Adoption in Prewar Japan

Hiroshi Kumanomido and Yutaro Takayasu
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Hiroshi Kumanomido: LMU Munich
Yutaro Takayasu: The University of Tokyo

No 537, Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series from CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition

Abstract: Why can elite families often maintain their social and economic status over multiple generations? We show that adoption can contribute to the persistence of elite status by utilizing a unique historical framework of prewar Japan. However, the preference for adopted heirs may lead to selection bias in the process of choosing heirs, potentially biasing OLS results negatively. To address this selection bias, we use the gender of the firstborn child as an instrument for the adoption decision. We find that having an adopted heir increases the probability of maintaining elite status in the son’s generation by 27% compared to having a biological heir. Furthermore, we show that this result is driven by matching high-quality adopted sons with fathers who were highly successful in their early lives.

Keywords: intergenerational transmission; adoption; succession; family; elite (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J13 J62 N35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-07-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-lab
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