Are parents altruistic? Evidence from Mexico
Are parents altruistic? Evidence from Mexico
Are parents altruistic or selfish? We contribute to the continuing debate of this question by proposing a simple test which is implemented using experimental data from the Mexican anti-poverty programme PROGRESA. Benefit eligibility is randomised. Our estimation strategy explicitly addresses potentially confounding factors and selection bias problems. We reject selfishness of parents in non-urbanMexico as PROGRESA beneficiaries spend more on child-related goods and do not increase spending on adult-related goods compared to parents in the control group. At the same time, we reject some rival theories.
parental altruism, poor households, progresa
1153-1174
Schluter, Christian
ae043254-4cc4-48aa-abad-56a36554de2b
Wahba, Jackline
03ae9304-c329-40c6-9bfc-d91cfa9e7164
2010
Schluter, Christian
ae043254-4cc4-48aa-abad-56a36554de2b
Wahba, Jackline
03ae9304-c329-40c6-9bfc-d91cfa9e7164
Schluter, Christian and Wahba, Jackline
(2010)
Are parents altruistic? Evidence from Mexico.
Journal of Population Economics, 23 (3), .
(doi:10.1007/s00148-008-0207-6).
Abstract
Are parents altruistic or selfish? We contribute to the continuing debate of this question by proposing a simple test which is implemented using experimental data from the Mexican anti-poverty programme PROGRESA. Benefit eligibility is randomised. Our estimation strategy explicitly addresses potentially confounding factors and selection bias problems. We reject selfishness of parents in non-urbanMexico as PROGRESA beneficiaries spend more on child-related goods and do not increase spending on adult-related goods compared to parents in the control group. At the same time, we reject some rival theories.
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Published date: 2010
Keywords:
parental altruism, poor households, progresa
Organisations:
Economics
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 153083
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/153083
ISSN: 0933-1433
PURE UUID: 51c89df7-47f4-4067-80ec-8cde385369a2
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Date deposited: 18 May 2010 11:11
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:38
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