Endogenous Changes in Tastes

17 Pages Posted: 4 Mar 2014

See all articles by Daniel Leonard

Daniel Leonard

Flinders University - School of Business Economics

Ngo Van Long

McGill University - Department of Economics; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Date Written: February 3, 2014

Abstract

Parents care about their children, spend resources on educating them and bequeath them some physical and/or human capital. Here we argue that the actions of the parents have an influence, not only on the productive possibilities open to the children (through the capital they inherit) but also on their tastes and attitudes. We investigate the resulting dynamics of this idea. Several influences are identified but one startling result is that, if inheritance has a large influence on people's attitude to work, the pattern of behavior becomes completely unpredictable after a few generations.

Keywords: Endogenous preferences, bequests, chaos

JEL Classification: D11

Suggested Citation

Leonard, Daniel and Van Long, Ngo, Endogenous Changes in Tastes (February 3, 2014). CIRANO - Scientific Publications 2014s-23, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2403983 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2403983

Daniel Leonard

Flinders University - School of Business Economics ( email )

Adelaide SA 5001
Australia

Ngo Van Long (Contact Author)

McGill University - Department of Economics ( email )

855 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, QC H3A 2T7
Canada
514-398-4850 (Phone)
514-398-4938 (Fax)

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

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