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Elterliche Stellvertreterentscheidungen und frühkindliche Humankapitalbildung

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  • Franziska Ziegelmeyer

Abstract

Due to low cognitive capacities, small children need their parents to decide all the small and large decisions in life as substitute decision makers. The long-lasting consequences of these decisions usually have to be borne by the child itself. Hence, children's development depends particularly on the quality of the parental decisions. For that reason this contribution is dedicated to the deciding parents. It sheds light on the different theoretical components of substitute decisions such as aims, preferences, state of nature, and perception of choice alternatives. It analyses in how far known behavioural results from research on individual decisions can be applied to parental substitute decisions and may pose an obstacle to a child's successful acquisition of human capital. With that focus this contribution is laying out the field for further empirical parental substitute decision research and enriches the existing research on the formation of children's human capital with an important perspective. Aufgrund des noch weitgehend unausgebildeten kognitiven Vermögens kleiner Kinder müssen von ihren Eltern für sie tagtäglich größere und kleinere Entscheidungen stellvertretend getroffen werden. Die langfristigen Konsequenzen - insbesondere in der Humankapitalbildung - sind in der Regel von den Kindern zu tragen. Sie sind damit in besonderer Weise auf die Qualität der Entscheidung ihrer Eltern angewiesen. Daher widmet sich der Beitrag den entscheidenden Eltern. Er beleuchtet die verschiedenen entscheidungstheoretischen Komponenten wie Ziele, Präferenzen, Umwelt und Wahrnehmung von Handlungsalternativen in elterlichen Stellvertreterentscheidungen genauer und analysiert, in welchen Bereichen sich aufgrund bekannter Ergebnisse aus der Individualentscheidungsforschung relevante Hindernisse für eine bestmögliche kindliche Humankapitalbildung in den elterlichen Entscheidungen vermuten lassen. Damit bereitet der Beitrag das Feld für eine zukünftige empirische elterliche Stellvertreterentscheidungsforschung und ergänzt die kindliche Humankapitalforschung um eine bisher jedoch kaum beachtete Perspektive.

Suggested Citation

  • Franziska Ziegelmeyer, 2010. "Elterliche Stellvertreterentscheidungen und frühkindliche Humankapitalbildung," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 79(3), pages 57-77.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwvjh:79-3-5
    DOI: 10.3790/vjh.79.3.57
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Substitute decision making; parents; early childhood; human capital formation; bounded rationality; risk preference; intertemporal choice; family economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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