Like Mother Like Son? Experimental Evidence on the Transmission of Values from Parents to Children

Marco Cipriani, Paola Giuliano and Olivier Jeanne

No 2768, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper studies whether prosocial values are transmitted from parents to their children. We do so through an economic experiment, in which a group of Hispanic and African American families play a standard public goods game. The experimental data presents us with a surprising result. We find no significant correlation between the degree of cooperation of a child and that of his or her parents. Such lack of cooperation is robust across age groups, sex, family size and different estimation strategies. This contrasts with the typical assumption made by the theoretical economic literature on the inter-generational transmission of values. The absence of correlation between parents' and children's behavior, however, is consistent with part of the psychological literature, which emphasizes the importance of peer effects in the socialization process.

Keywords: culture; public good games; intergenerational transmission (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C92 H41 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2007-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-pbe and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2013, 90, 100-111

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Related works:
Journal Article: Like mother like son? Experimental evidence on the transmission of values from parents to children (2013)
Working Paper: Like Mother Like Son? Experimental Evidence on the Transmission of Values from Parents to Children (2007)
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