Research report 2012 - Max Planck Institute of Economics (1993 until 2014)

Like father, like son: Intergenerational transmission of preferences

Authors
Volland, Benjamin
Departments
Evolutionsökonomik (Witt)
Summary
Decades of research in the social sciences have demonstrated that an individual’s economic success is to a substantial part determined by his or her parents’ success. This phenomenon is only partially explained by direct transfer mechanisms (i.e. by donations or inheritance). One mechanism by which such intergenerational inertia in economic outcomes is likely to emerge is the similarity in preference sets between parents and their children. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Economics report on the observable cross-generational similarity in activity preferences.

For the full text, see the German version.

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