全球智库信息集成服务系统(G2TT): Poor Little Rich Kids? The Role of Nature versus Nurture in Wealth and Other Economic Outcomes and Behaviors

G2TT

来源类型	Working Paper
规范类型	报告
DOI	10.3386/w21409
来源ID	Working Paper 21409
	Poor Little Rich Kids? The Role of Nature versus Nurture in Wealth and Other Economic Outcomes and Behaviors
	Sandra E. Black; Paul J. Devereux; Petter Lundborg; Kaveh Majlesi
发表日期	2015-07-27
出版年	2015
语种	英语
摘要	Wealth is highly correlated between parents and their children; however, little is known about the extent to which these relationships are genetic or determined by environmental factors. We use administrative data on the net wealth of a large sample of Swedish adoptees merged with similar information for their biological and adoptive parents. Comparing the relationship between the wealth of adopted and biological parents and that of the adopted child, we find that, even prior to any inheritance, there is a substantial role for environment and a much smaller role for pre-birth factors and we find little evidence that nature/nurture interactions are important. When bequests are taken into account, the role of adoptive parental wealth becomes much stronger. Our findings suggest that wealth transmission is not primarily because children from wealthier families are inherently more talented or more able but that, even in relatively egalitarian Sweden, wealth begets wealth. We further build on the existing literature by providing a more comprehensive view of the role of nature and nurture on intergenerational mobility, looking at a wide range of different outcomes using a common sample and method. We find that environmental influences are relatively more important for wealth-related variables such as savings and investment decisions than for human capital. We conclude by studying consumption as an overall measure of welfare and find that, like wealth, it is more determined by environment than by biology.
主题	Financial Economics ; Portfolio Selection and Asset Pricing ; Labor Economics ; Demography and Aging ; Unemployment and Immigration
URL	https://www.nber.org/papers/w21409
来源智库	National Bureau of Economic Research (United States)
引用统计
资源类型	智库出版物
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/579083
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Sandra E. Black,Paul J. Devereux,Petter Lundborg,et al. Poor Little Rich Kids? The Role of Nature versus Nurture in Wealth and Other Economic Outcomes and Behaviors. 2015.