Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/338913 
Year of Publication: 
2026
Series/Report no.: 
ifo Working Paper No. 424
Publisher: 
ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, Munich
Abstract: 
This paper provides the first evidence that children's economic preferences vary systematically with parental mental health. Using experimentally elicited measures of economic preferences from more than 4,500 children in Bangladesh, we document that children of parents with indications of mental illness are less prosocial but more patient than their peers with mentally healthy parents. Attitudes toward risk remain unchanged. We discuss potential pathways through which parental mental health may influence the formation of children's preferences, documenting that children of parents with indication of mental illness assume greater responsibilities within the family, experience less parental involvement, and are exposed to a more adverse home environment.
Subjects: 
mental health
social preferences
risk preferences
patience
origins of preferences
experiments with children
Bangladesh
JEL: 
C91
D01
D10
I10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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