Raising Children to Work Hard: Altruism, Work Norms and Social Insurance

38 Pages Posted: 1 Aug 2001

See all articles by Assar Lindbeck

Assar Lindbeck

; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute); Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)

Sten Nyberg

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

Date Written: June 2001

Abstract

Children who can count on support from altruistic parents may not try hard to succeed in the labor market. Moreover, parental altruism makes withdrawal of such support non-credible. To promote work effort, parents may want to instill norms which later cause their children to experience guilt or shame associated with failure to support themselves. While social insurance pools risk across families, we show that it also creates a free-rider problem among parents in terms of norm formation. We also examine the formation of norms requiring children to support their parents financially in old age.

Keywords: Work Norms, Social Insurance, Altruism

JEL Classification: Z13, D19, D64, H31

Suggested Citation

Lindbeck, Assar and Nyberg, Sten, Raising Children to Work Hard: Altruism, Work Norms and Social Insurance (June 2001). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=277272 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.277272

Assar Lindbeck (Contact Author)

( email )

Stockholm, SE-10691
Sweden
+46 8 163 078 (Phone)
+46 8 162 946 (Fax)

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.CESifo.de

Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) ( email )

Box 55665
Grevgatan 34, 2nd floor
Stockholm, SE-102 15
Sweden

HOME PAGE: http://www.ifn.se/assarl

Sten Nyberg

Stockholm University - Department of Economics ( email )

Universitetsvägen 10 A
House A, floor 4 and 7
Frescati, Stockholm
Sweden
+46-8-163305 (Phone)
+46-8-16 14 25 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.econ.su.se/~sn/

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

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