Journal Article

Transmission of risk preferences from mothers to daughters

Authors

Publication date

Feb 2017

Summary

We study the transmission of risk attitudes in a unique survey of mothers and children in which both participated in an incentivized risk preference elicitation task. We document that risk preferences are correlated between mothers and children when the children are just 7–8 years old. This correlation is only present for daughters. We further show that a measure of maternal involvement is a strong moderator of the association between mothers’ and daughters’ risk tolerance. This is consistent with a role for socialization and parental investment in the intergenerational transmission of risk preferences.

Published in

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

Volume and page numbers

134 , 60 -77

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2016.12.014

Subjects

Young People, Child Development, Economics, and Social Behaviour

Notes

Open Access; Open Access funded by Economic and Social Research Council; Under a Creative Commons license

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