Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
Standing on the shoulders of birth intergenerational mobility, inequality, and pro-social preferences
Poor outcomes arising from natural and social circumstances to which individuals are born, over which they have no control, are widely seen as normatively objectionable and potential obstacles for economic growth. Understanding the persistence and effects of circumstances of birth is crucial to abat...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
School of Economics
2023
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613236423032832 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Njozela,Lindokuhle |
| author2 | Burns, Justine |
| author_browse | Burns, Justine Njozela,Lindokuhle |
| author_facet | Burns, Justine Njozela,Lindokuhle |
| author_sort | Njozela,Lindokuhle |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Poor outcomes arising from natural and social circumstances to which individuals are born, over which they have no control, are widely seen as normatively objectionable and potential obstacles for economic growth. Understanding the persistence and effects of circumstances of birth is crucial to abating these adverse effects, particularly in the context of rising global inequality. The existing literature is limited in two respects. Firstly, it lacks a comprehensive description of the persistence of intergenerationally transmitted preferences that contribute to the deterministic nature of accidents of birth. Secondly, the effects of dyadic and multigenerational (im)mobility on voluntary pro-social behaviour to mitigate the consequences of birth are rarely studied. This thesis fills these gaps in the South African context – a country with high and strongly racialised (a “natural” circumstance of birth) inequality, and comparatively low intergenerational mobility. Using a nationally representative dataset, significant correlations are observed in interracial trust attitudes between mothers and children. However, this effect is substantially smaller and largely insignificant for non-coresident mothers and children. Disaggregating the trust attitudes shows strong intergenerational correlations amongst individuals who completely mistrust their race and other race groups, irrespective of mother-child co-residence. In trust and public goods games with identical treatment designs, inherited socioeconomic status is assigned in two treatments based on real-world self-reported parental or grandparental socio-economic status. The results show weak overall effects on trust orientated behaviour in the trust game with socio-economic status inherited from parents or grandparents. However, there is substantial heterogeneity in behaviour with inherited social status in the trust game with trust and trustworthiness tending to favour individuals who inherit a low socio-economic status. Introducing inherited advantages for relatively higher endowment attainment in a public goods game shows increased contributions with parentally inherited status, but not from grandparents. Heterogeneous treatment effects show weak evidence of inequality aversion yet substantial altruistic preferences with parentally inherited advantages. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37359 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:56.154Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | School of Economics |
| publisherStr | School of Economics |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37359 Standing on the shoulders of birth intergenerational mobility, inequality, and pro-social preferences Njozela,Lindokuhle Burns, Justine economics Poor outcomes arising from natural and social circumstances to which individuals are born, over which they have no control, are widely seen as normatively objectionable and potential obstacles for economic growth. Understanding the persistence and effects of circumstances of birth is crucial to abating these adverse effects, particularly in the context of rising global inequality. The existing literature is limited in two respects. Firstly, it lacks a comprehensive description of the persistence of intergenerationally transmitted preferences that contribute to the deterministic nature of accidents of birth. Secondly, the effects of dyadic and multigenerational (im)mobility on voluntary pro-social behaviour to mitigate the consequences of birth are rarely studied. This thesis fills these gaps in the South African context – a country with high and strongly racialised (a “natural” circumstance of birth) inequality, and comparatively low intergenerational mobility. Using a nationally representative dataset, significant correlations are observed in interracial trust attitudes between mothers and children. However, this effect is substantially smaller and largely insignificant for non-coresident mothers and children. Disaggregating the trust attitudes shows strong intergenerational correlations amongst individuals who completely mistrust their race and other race groups, irrespective of mother-child co-residence. In trust and public goods games with identical treatment designs, inherited socioeconomic status is assigned in two treatments based on real-world self-reported parental or grandparental socio-economic status. The results show weak overall effects on trust orientated behaviour in the trust game with socio-economic status inherited from parents or grandparents. However, there is substantial heterogeneity in behaviour with inherited social status in the trust game with trust and trustworthiness tending to favour individuals who inherit a low socio-economic status. Introducing inherited advantages for relatively higher endowment attainment in a public goods game shows increased contributions with parentally inherited status, but not from grandparents. Heterogeneous treatment effects show weak evidence of inequality aversion yet substantial altruistic preferences with parentally inherited advantages. 2023-03-10T09:43:33Z 2023-03-10T09:43:33Z 2022 2023-03-10T09:42:26Z Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37359 eng application/pdf School of Economics Faculty of Commerce |
| spellingShingle | economics Njozela,Lindokuhle Standing on the shoulders of birth intergenerational mobility, inequality, and pro-social preferences |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | Standing on the shoulders of birth intergenerational mobility, inequality, and pro-social preferences |
| title_full | Standing on the shoulders of birth intergenerational mobility, inequality, and pro-social preferences |
| title_fullStr | Standing on the shoulders of birth intergenerational mobility, inequality, and pro-social preferences |
| title_full_unstemmed | Standing on the shoulders of birth intergenerational mobility, inequality, and pro-social preferences |
| title_short | Standing on the shoulders of birth intergenerational mobility, inequality, and pro-social preferences |
| title_sort | standing on the shoulders of birth intergenerational mobility inequality and pro social preferences |
| topic | economics |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37359 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT njozelalindokuhle standingontheshouldersofbirthintergenerationalmobilityinequalityandprosocialpreferences |