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Schooling and the Intergenerational Transmission of Values
Author(s) -
GIUSTA MARINA DELLA,
HASHIMZADE NIGAR,
MYLES GARETH D.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of public economic theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.809
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1467-9779
pISSN - 1097-3923
DOI - 10.1111/jpet.12184
Subject(s) - earnings , socioeconomic status , ethnic group , multiculturalism , identity (music) , immigration , cultural transmission in animals , sociology , cultural values , demographic economics , melting pot , transmission (telecommunications) , economics , demography , gender studies , political science , biology , law , pedagogy , anthropology , acoustics , genetics , population , physics , electrical engineering , accounting , engineering
We present a model of the evolution of identity via dynamic interaction between the choice of education and the transmission of values in a community from parents to children, when parents care about the preservation of their traditional community values, different from the values of the host society. We compare the educational and socioeconomic outcomes in different scenarios (melting pot versus multiculturalism). If schooling shifts children's identity away from their parents' values, parents may choose lower levels of education for their children, at the cost of reducing their future earnings. We show how this effect can be attenuated and reversed when the school or, indeed, the host society are willing to accommodate the values of the community and/or to adjust to these values; otherwise the community gradually becomes alienated. This approach may be applied to the analysis of temporal changes in values and attitudes in a community of immigrants, as well as ethnic, religious, or other minority groups.