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Evaluating Intergenerational Persistence of Economic Preferences: A Large Scale Experiment with Families in Bangladesh

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  • Shyamal Chowdhury
  • Matthias Sutter
  • Klaus F. Zimmermann

Abstract

Economic preferences – like time, risk and social preferences – have been shown to be very influential for real-life outcomes, such as educational achievements, labor market outcomes, or health status. We contribute to the recent literature that has examined how and when economic preferences are formed, putting particular emphasis on the role of intergenerational transmission of economic preferences within families. Our paper is the first to run incentivized experiments with fathers and mothers and their children by drawing on a unique dataset of 1,999 members of Bangladeshi families, including 911 children, aged 6-17 years, and 544 pairs of mothers and fathers. We find a large degree of intergenerational persistence as the economic preferences of mothers and fathers are significantly positively related to their children’s economic preferences. Importantly, we find that socio-economic status of a family has no explanatory power as soon as we control for parents’ economic preferences. A series of robustness checks deals with the role of older siblings, the similarity of parental preferences, and the average preferences within a child’s village.

Suggested Citation

  • Shyamal Chowdhury & Matthias Sutter & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2018. "Evaluating Intergenerational Persistence of Economic Preferences: A Large Scale Experiment with Families in Bangladesh," CESifo Working Paper Series 6914, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6914
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Evaluating Intergenerational Persistence of Economic Preferences: A Large Scale Experiment with Families in Bangladesh
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2018-10-24 12:44:24
    2. Evaluating Intergenerational Persistence of Economic Preferences: A Large Scale Experiment with Families in Bangladesh
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2018-04-03 13:29:30
    3. Evaluating intergenerational persistence of economic preferences: A large scale experiment with families in Bangladesh
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2018-05-17 20:22:25

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    3. Muscatelli, Anton & Roy, Graeme & Trew, Alex, 2022. "Persistent States: Lessons For Scottish Devolution And Independence," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 260, pages 51-63, May.
    4. Radoslaw (Radek) Stefanski & Alex Trew, 2021. "Selection, Patience, and the Interest Rate (updated 2023 2023_01)," Working Papers 2020_03, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    5. Norrgren, Lisa, 2021. "Time Preferences, Illness, and Death," Working Papers in Economics 812, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics, revised 11 Oct 2021.
    6. Radoslaw Stefanski & Alex Trew, 2020. "Selection, Patience, and the Interest Rate," Discussion Paper Series, School of Economics and Finance 202002, School of Economics and Finance, University of St Andrews, revised 23 Jul 2021.
    7. Tim Friehe & Markus Pannenberg, 2020. "Time preferences and political regimes: evidence from reunified Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 349-387, January.
    8. Brenøe, Anne Ardila & Epper, Thomas, 2019. "Parenting Values Moderate the Intergenerational Transmission of Time Preferences," Economics Working Paper Series 1917, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    9. Preuss, Malte, 2021. "Intra-individual stability of two survey measures on forward-looking attitude," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 201-227.
    10. Pierre-André Chiappori & Edoardo Ciscato & Carla Guerriero, 2021. "Analyzing Matching Patterns in Marriage:Theory and Application to Italian Data," CSEF Working Papers 613, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    11. Stein T Holden & Mesfin Tilahun, 2021. "Preferences, trust, and performance in youth business groups," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-28, September.
    12. Radoslaw (Radek) Stefanski & Alex Trew, 2020. "Patience Breeds Interest: The Rise of Societal Patience and the Fall of the Risk-free Interest Rate," Working Papers 2020-03, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    13. Chowdhury, Shyamal & Smits, Joeri & Sun, Qigang, 2020. "Contract Structure, Time Preference, and Technology Adoption," IZA Discussion Papers 13590, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Breitkopf, Laura & Chowdhury, Shyamal K. & Priyam, Shambhavi & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah & Sutter, Matthias, 2020. "Do economic preferences of children predict behavior?," DICE Discussion Papers 342, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    15. Samek, Anya & Gray, Andre & Datar, Ashlesha & Nicosia, Nancy, 2021. "Adolescent time and risk preferences: Measurement, determinants and field consequences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 460-488.
    16. Chowdhury, Shyamal & Smits, Joeri & Sun, Qigang, 2020. "Contract structure, time preference, and technology adoption," GLO Discussion Paper Series 633, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    17. Fabian Koenings & Jakob Schwab, 2020. "Accounting for Intergenerational Social Immobility in Low- and Middle-Income Countries," Jena Economics Research Papers 2020-008, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, revised 12 Mar 2021.
    18. Aronsson, Thomas & Hetschko, Clemens & Schöb, Ronnie, 2020. "Globalization, Time-Preferences, and Populist Voting," Umeå Economic Studies 978, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    19. Silvan Has & Jake Anders & John Jerrim & Nikki Shure, 2021. "Educational expectations of UK teenagers and the role of socio-economic status and economic preferences," CEPEO Working Paper Series 21-11, UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, revised Dec 2021.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    intergenerational transmission of preferences; time preferences; risk preferences; social preferences; children; parents; Bangladesh; socio-economic status; experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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