How Does Household Income Affect Child Personality Traits and Behaviors?
- (pp. 775-827)
Abstract
We examine the effects of a quasi-experimental unconditional household income transfer on child emotional and behavioral health and personality traits. Using longitudinal data, we find that there are large beneficial effects on children's emotional and behavioral health and personality traits during adolescence. We find evidence that these effects are most pronounced for children who start out with the lowest initial endowments. The income intervention also results in improvements in parental relationships which we interpret as a potential mechanism behind our findings.Citation
Akee, Randall, William Copeland, E. Jane Costello, and Emilia Simeonova. 2018. "How Does Household Income Affect Child Personality Traits and Behaviors?" American Economic Review, 108 (3): 775-827. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20160133Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D14 Household Saving; Personal Finance
- I12 Health Behavior
- I26 Returns to Education
- I31 General Welfare; Well-Being
- I38 Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination