Parental Priorities and Economic Inequality
- List Price: $117.00
- Binding: Hardcover
- Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr
- Publish date: 12/01/1997
In Mulligan's model, parents determine the degree of their altruistic concern for their children and spend time with and resources on them accordingly -- just as they might make choices about how they spend money. Mulligan tests his model against both old and new evidence on the intergenerational transmission of consumption, earnings, and wealth, including models that emphasize "financial constraints". One major prediction of Mulligan's model confirmed by the evidence is that children of wealthy parents typically spend more than they earn.
Mulligan's innovative approach can also help explain other important behavior, such as charitable giving and "corporate loyalty", and will appeal to a wide range of quantitatively oriented social scientists and sociobiologists.
"I strongly recommend this highly innovative and stimulating study by Casey Mulligan. It should greatly influence analysis of the intergenerational transmission of inequality". -- Gary S. Becker