Seminar Social preferences as human capital: intergenerational transmission in an ethnically diverse context

Abstract

Prosociality is a fundamental skill in human societies and is linked to many long-run positive economic outcomes. Many factors shape prosociality during early childhood - a key stage in skill development - but the interactions among those factors remain understudied. In this paper, we study how ethnic identity and parental influence are associated with social preferences. To do so, we elicit social preferences across 842 parent-child pairs from both ethnic majority and minorities in Bulgaria using survey- and task-based items. Our results indicate that prosocial behavior and in-group preferences are common in our context and are transmitted between generations. We also find that in-group preferences are driven by a relatively small number of individuals across groups. Notably, the intergenerational transmission of social preferences is partially explained by different mechanisms. In ethnic Roma households, contact with the out-group is associated with the transmission of in-group preferences; in ethnic Bulgarian households, positive out-group stereotypes are associated with the transmission of out-group preferences.