The intergenerational transmission of reading: is a good example the best sermon?

Anna Laura Mancini, Chiara Monfardini and Silvia Pasqua

No 958, Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: We use the last two waves of the Italian Time Use Survey to analyse the intergenerational transmission of reading habits. This can be explained by both cultural and educational transfers from parents to children and by imitative behaviour. Imitation is of particular interest, since it suggests the direct influence parents can have on a child�s preference and habit formation, and opens the way for active policies promoting good parenting behaviour. We investigate the imitative behaviour of children using a household fixed-effects model, where we identify the impact of the parents� role by exploiting the different exposure of siblings to parents� example within the same household. We find robust evidence on the existence of an imitation effect: on the day of the survey children are more likely to read after seeing either the mother or the father reading.

Keywords: intergenerational transmission of preferences; parental role model; imitation; household fixed effects. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 J13 J22 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_958_14

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