Recent theories endogenize the attitude endowments of individuals, assuming that they are shaped
by the attitudes of parents and other role models. This paper tests empirically for the relevance of three
aspects of the attitude transmission process highlighted in this theoretical literature: (1) transmission of
attitudes from parents to children; (2) an impact of prevailing attitudes in the local environment on child
attitudes; and (3) positive assortative mating of parents, which enhances the ability of a parent to pass on
his or her attitudes to the child. We focus on two fundamentally important attitudes, willingness to take
risks and willingness to trust others.We find empirical support for all three aspects, providing an empirical
underpinning for the literature. An investigation of underlying mechanisms shows that socialization is
important in the transmission process. Various parental characteristics and aspects of family structure are
found to strengthen the socialization process, with implications for modeling the socialization production
function and for policies focused on affecting children's non-cognitive skills. The paper also provides
evidence that the transmission of risk and trust attitudes affects a wide variety of child outcomes, implying
a potentially large total effect on children's economic situation.
%0 Journal Article
%1 dohmen2012intergenerational
%A Dohmen, Thomas
%A Falk, Armin
%A Huffman, David
%A Sunde, Uwe
%D 2012
%J The Review of Economic Studies
%K item_development risk-taking risk_preferences
%N 2
%P 645-677
%R 10.1093/restud/rdr027
%T The Intergenerational Transmission of Risk and Trust Attitudes
%V 79
%X Recent theories endogenize the attitude endowments of individuals, assuming that they are shaped
by the attitudes of parents and other role models. This paper tests empirically for the relevance of three
aspects of the attitude transmission process highlighted in this theoretical literature: (1) transmission of
attitudes from parents to children; (2) an impact of prevailing attitudes in the local environment on child
attitudes; and (3) positive assortative mating of parents, which enhances the ability of a parent to pass on
his or her attitudes to the child. We focus on two fundamentally important attitudes, willingness to take
risks and willingness to trust others.We find empirical support for all three aspects, providing an empirical
underpinning for the literature. An investigation of underlying mechanisms shows that socialization is
important in the transmission process. Various parental characteristics and aspects of family structure are
found to strengthen the socialization process, with implications for modeling the socialization production
function and for policies focused on affecting children's non-cognitive skills. The paper also provides
evidence that the transmission of risk and trust attitudes affects a wide variety of child outcomes, implying
a potentially large total effect on children's economic situation.
@article{dohmen2012intergenerational,
abstract = {Recent theories endogenize the attitude endowments of individuals, assuming that they are shaped
by the attitudes of parents and other role models. This paper tests empirically for the relevance of three
aspects of the attitude transmission process highlighted in this theoretical literature: (1) transmission of
attitudes from parents to children; (2) an impact of prevailing attitudes in the local environment on child
attitudes; and (3) positive assortative mating of parents, which enhances the ability of a parent to pass on
his or her attitudes to the child. We focus on two fundamentally important attitudes, willingness to take
risks and willingness to trust others.We find empirical support for all three aspects, providing an empirical
underpinning for the literature. An investigation of underlying mechanisms shows that socialization is
important in the transmission process. Various parental characteristics and aspects of family structure are
found to strengthen the socialization process, with implications for modeling the socialization production
function and for policies focused on affecting children's non-cognitive skills. The paper also provides
evidence that the transmission of risk and trust attitudes affects a wide variety of child outcomes, implying
a potentially large total effect on children's economic situation.},
added-at = {2014-10-30T12:34:02.000+0100},
author = {Dohmen, Thomas and Falk, Armin and Huffman, David and Sunde, Uwe},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2fd64fa0210b1b5572e67c9f7a0300488/renditen-group},
doi = {10.1093/restud/rdr027},
interhash = {566cce7dce2d43d3b36db734b829605a},
intrahash = {fd64fa0210b1b5572e67c9f7a0300488},
issn = {0034-6527},
journal = {The Review of Economic Studies},
keywords = {item_development risk-taking risk_preferences},
number = 2,
pages = {645-677},
timestamp = {2015-01-20T12:08:30.000+0100},
title = {The Intergenerational Transmission of Risk and Trust Attitudes},
volume = 79,
year = 2012
}