Brown Heather, van der Pol Marjon
Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, UK.
Health Economics Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
J Econ Psychol. 2015 Aug;49:187-204. doi: 10.1016/j.joep.2015.06.003.
There is a growing interest in individual time and risk preferences. Little is known about how these preferences are formed. It is hypothesised that parents may transmit their preferences to their offspring. This paper examines the correlation in offspring and parental time and risk preferences using data from an annual household survey in Australia (the HILDA survey). Both time and risk preferences are examined and we explored whether the correlation in time and risk preferences varies across the distribution of preferences and across the across the four parent-child dyads (mother/daughter, mother/son, father/daughter, father/son). The results show that there is a significant relationship between parents and their young adult offspring risk and time preference measures. The correlation varies across the distribution of time preferences. The correlation was largest for longer planning horizons. Risk averse parents are more likely to have risk averse children. Except for the father/daughter dyad risk seeking parents are more likely to have risk seeking offspring. Some gender differences were found. The association in parental and offspring time preference was larger for mothers than fathers. Daughters are more likely to be influenced by their mother's risk preferences, however, sons are equally influenced by both parents. The results of this study suggest that the transmission in preferences is more nuanced than previously thought and parental gender may be important.
人们对个体的时间偏好和风险偏好越来越感兴趣。对于这些偏好是如何形成的，我们知之甚少。据推测，父母可能会将他们的偏好传递给后代。本文利用澳大利亚年度家庭调查（HILDA调查）的数据，研究了后代与父母的时间偏好和风险偏好之间的相关性。我们对时间偏好和风险偏好都进行了考察，并探讨了时间偏好和风险偏好的相关性在偏好分布以及四种亲子组合（母亲/女儿、母亲/儿子、父亲/女儿、父亲/儿子）中是否存在差异。结果表明，父母与他们的成年子女的风险偏好和时间偏好测度之间存在显著关系。相关性在时间偏好分布中有所不同。对于较长的规划期，相关性最大。风险厌恶型的父母更有可能生出风险厌恶型的孩子。除了父亲/女儿组合外，风险寻求型的父母更有可能生出风险寻求型的后代。研究发现了一些性别差异。母亲与后代时间偏好的关联性比父亲更大。女儿更容易受到母亲风险偏好的影响，然而，儿子受到父母双方的影响程度相同。这项研究的结果表明，偏好的传递比之前认为的更为微妙，而且父母的性别可能很重要。
