Options
The early childhood determinants of time preferences
Author(s)
Date Issued
2008-12-15
Date Available
2009-06-23T14:33:42Z
Abstract
Research on time preference formation and socioeconomic differences in discounting has received little attention to date. This article examines the extent to which
early childhood differences emerge in measures of hyperactivity, impulsivity and
persistence, all of which are good psychometric analogues to how economists
conceptualise discounting. We examine the distribution of these traits measured at age
three across parental social class and analyse the extent to which different mechanism plausibly generate the observed social class distribution. In addition, we control for a wide ranging of potentially mediating factors including parental investment and proxies for maternal time preferences. Our results show substantial social class variations across all measures. We find only weak evidence that this relates to differential maternal time preferences (e.g. savings behaviour, abstaining from smoking) but relatively stronger evidence that these traits are transmitted through the parents own non-cognitive skill set
(self-esteem, attachment etc.) and parental time investments (e.g. time spent reading to
the child and teaching the child to write, sing etc.).
Type of Material
Working Paper
Publisher
University College Dublin. Geary Institute
Series
UCD Geary Institute Discussion Paper Series
WP/34/2008
Copyright (Published Version)
2008 Geary Institute
Subject – LCSH
Child development
Children--Social conditions
Parent and child
Language
English
Status of Item
Not peer reviewed
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
File(s)
Owning collection
Views
2190
Acquisition Date
Mar 28, 2024
Mar 28, 2024
Downloads
728
Last Week
2
2
Last Month
7
7
Acquisition Date
Mar 28, 2024
Mar 28, 2024