Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/223893 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13451
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Economic preferences are important for lifetime outcomes such as educational achievements, health status, or labor market success. We present a holistic view of how economic preferences are related within families. In an experiment with 544 families (and 1,999 individuals) from rural Bangladesh we find a large degree of intergenerational persistence of economic preferences. Both mothers' and fathers' risk, time and social preferences are significantly (and largely to the same degree) positively correlated with their children's economic preferences, even when controlling for personality traits and socio-economic background data. We discuss possible transmission channels for these relationships within families and find indications that there is more than pure genetics at work. Moving beyond an individual level analysis, we are the first to classify a whole family into one of two clusters, with either relatively patient, risktolerant and pro-social members or relatively impatient, risk averse and spiteful members. Socio-economic background variables correlate with the cluster to which a family belongs to.
Subjects: 
economic preferences within families
intergenerational transmission of preferences
time preferences
risk preferences
social preferences
family clusters
socio-economic status
Bangladesh
experiment
JEL: 
C90
D1
D90
D81
D64
J13
J24
J62
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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