Raising Children to Work Hard: Altruism, Work Norms and Social Insurance ∗
RAISING CHILDREN TO WORK HARD: ALTRUISM, WORK NORMS AND SOCIAL INSURANCE ¤ Assar Lindbeck and Sten Nyberg February 28, 2006 Forthcoming in Quarterly Journal of Economics, 4, November 2006 Abstract Empirically, disincentive eects on work of generous welfare state arrange- ments tend to appear with a substantial time-lag. One explanation is that norms concerning work and benet dependency delay such eects. We model altruistic parents' economic incentives for instilling such work norms in their children. Anticipated economic support from parents may reduce work eort, and parental altruism makes threats to withdraw such support non-credible. Instilling norms mitigates this problem. However, generous social insurance arrangements tend to weaken parents' incentives to instill such norms in their children. We nd empirical support for this prediction. JEL Classication: Z13, D19, D64, H31. Keywords: Work norms, social insurance, altruism. ¤We are grateful for comments from Gary Becker, Alessandra Cassella, Torsten Persson, Michael Waldman, Jörgen W. Weibull and seminar participants at the EEA meeting in Lausanne, IIES Stockholm University, Uppsala University, the Research Institute of Industrial Economics Stockholm, SCASSS, SNS/CEPR Public Policy Symposium, Stockholm School of Economics, Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Helsinki, University of Munich and University of Sydney. We are also grateful for suggestions from two anonymous referees and the editor of this journal. Excellent empirical research assistance by Jose Mauricio Prado, Jr. is gratefully acknowledged. 1 I. Introduction In recent years, social scientists and politicians have expressed concern about disincentive eects on work of welfare-state arrangements, and related taxes on labor income, in Western Europe. The large reduction in per capita hours of work and the huge increase in the number of individuals of working age living on various government benets might be the most direct evidence of such eects.
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