Raising Children to Work Hard: Altruism, Work Norms and Social Insurance

Arbeitspapier

Children who can count on support from altruistic parents may not try hard to succeed in the labor market. Moreover, parental altruism makes withdrawal of such support non-credible. To promote work effort, parents may want to instill norms which later cause their children to experience guilt or shame associated with failure to support themselves. While social insurance pools risk across families, we show that it also creates a free-rider problem among parents in terms of norm formation. We also examine the formation of norms requiring children to support their parents financially in old age.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IUI Working Paper ; No. 557

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Household Behavior and Family Economics: Other ; Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers ; Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: Household
• Subject: Work norms ; Social insurance ; Altruism ; Altruismus ; Familiensoziologie ; Arbeitsethik ; Sozialversicherung ; Trittbrettfahrerverhalten ; Theorie

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Lindbeck, Assar ; Nyberg, Sten
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): The Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IUI)
• (where): Stockholm
• (when): 2001

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/94765
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET