How does socio-economic status shape a child's personality?

Arbeitspapier

We show that socio-economic status (SES) is a powerful predictor of many facets of a child's personality. The facets of personality we investigate encompass time preferences, risk preferences, and altruism, as well as crystallized and fluid IQ. We measure a family's SES by the mother's and father's average years of education and household income. Our results show that children from families with higher SES are more patient, tend to be more altruistic and less likely to be risk seeking, and score higher on IQ tests. We also discuss potential pathways through which SES could affect the formation of a child's personality by documenting that many dimensions of a child's environment differ systematically by SES: parenting style, quantity and quality of time parents spend with their children, the mother's IQ and economic preferences, a child's initial conditions at birth, and family structure. Finally, we use panel data to show that the relationship between SES and personality is fairly stable over time at age 7 to 10. Personality profiles that vary systematically with SES might offer an explanation for social immobility.

Objekt anzeigen

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: SFB/TR 15 Discussion Paper ; No. 498

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Design of Experiments: General ; Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: General‡ ; Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
• Thema: personality ; human capital ; risk preferences ; time preferences ; altruism ; experiments with children ; origins of preferences ; social immobility ; socio-economic status

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Deckers, Thomas ; Falk, Armin ; Kosse, Fabian ; Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Sonderforschungsbereich/Transregio 15 - Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems (GESY)
• (wo): München
• (wann): 2015

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/121383