IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eti/dpaper/14024.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Hidden Curriculum and Social Preferences

Author

Listed:
  • Takahiro ITO
  • Kohei KUBOTA
  • Fumio OHTAKE

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of the informal school curriculum (hidden curriculum) on subsequent preference formation. The estimation results using Japanese data show that the hidden curriculum at public elementary schools varies widely from place to place, and is associated with preference formation. In particular, those who have experienced "participatory and cooperative learning" practices are more likely to be altruistic, cooperative, reciprocal, and have national pride. In contrast, the influence of educational practices emphasizing "anti-competition" is negatively associated with these attributes. Robustness checks also show that our estimates are less likely to be biased due to omitted variables or reverse causality. These findings imply that elementary school education, as a place for early socialization, plays a role in the formation of social preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Takahiro ITO & Kohei KUBOTA & Fumio OHTAKE, 2014. "The Hidden Curriculum and Social Preferences," Discussion papers 14024, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:14024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rieti.go.jp/jp/publications/dp/14e024.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Willa Friedman & Michael Kremer & Edward Miguel & Rebecca Thornton, 2016. "Education as Liberation?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(329), pages 1-30, January.
    2. John F. Helliwell & Robert D. Putnam, 2007. "Education and Social Capital," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 1-19, Winter.
    3. Dmytro Hryshko & María José Luengo‐Prado & Bent E. Sørensen, 2011. "Childhood determinants of risk aversion: The long shadow of compulsory education," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 2(1), pages 37-72, March.
    4. Ryoji MATSUOKA & Makiko NAKAMURO & Tomohiko INUI, 2013. "Widening Educational Disparities Outside of School: A longitudinal study of parental involvement and early elementary schoolchildren's learning time in Japan," Discussion papers 13101, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    5. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2009. "Homo Reciprocans: Survey Evidence on Behavioural Outcomes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 592-612, March.
    6. Davide Cantoni & Yuyu Chen & David Y. Yang & Noam Yuchtman & Y. Jane Zhang, 2017. "Curriculum and Ideology," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(2), pages 338-392.
    7. Oriol Aspachs-Bracons & Irma Clots-Figueras & Joan Costa-Font & Paolo Masella, 2008. "Compulsory Language Educational Policies and Identity Formation," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 6(2-3), pages 434-444, 04-05.
    8. Milligan, Kevin & Moretti, Enrico & Oreopoulos, Philip, 2004. "Does education improve citizenship? Evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1667-1695, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yamamura, Eiji, 2019. "Female teachers’ relative wage level in the 1930s and its long-term effects on current views on female labor participation: A case study from Japan," MPRA Paper 93677, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Eiji Yamamura & Yoshiro Tsutsui, 2017. "Trade policy preference, childhood sporting experience, and informal school curriculum: Examination from the viewpoint of behavioral economics," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 17-25, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    3. Vipul Bhatt & Masao Ogaki & Yuichi Yaguchi, 2017. "Introducing Virtue Ethics into Normative Economics for Models with Endogenous Preferences," RCER Working Papers 600, University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER).
    4. Kim, Hisam, 2018. "Healing a Wary, Self-cultivating Society through Education," KDI Focus 91, Korea Development Institute (KDI).
    5. Sajjad Ali & Aftab Hussain & Shan Zeb, 2023. "Exploring the Role of Hidden Curriculum on Character Building of Secondary School Students," International Journal of Politics & Social Sciences Review (IJPSSR), International Journal of Politics & Social Sciences Review (IJPSSR), vol. 2(1), pages 38-51.
    6. Eiji Yamamura, 2017. "Historical education levels and present-day non-cognitive skills," Journal of Economics and Econometrics, Economics and Econometrics Society, vol. 60(1), pages 28-51.
    7. Toshihiro OKUBO & Alexander F. WAGNER & Kazuo YAMADA, 2017. "Does Foreign Ownership Explain Company Export and Innovation Decisions? Evidence from Japan," Discussion papers 17099, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    8. Kubota, Kohei & Ito, Takahiro & Ohtake, Fumio, 2019. "Long-term consequences of group work in Japanese public elementary schools," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Takahiro Ito & Kohei Kubota & Fumio Ohtake, 2022. "Long-term consequences of the hidden curriculum on social preferences," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 269-297, April.
    2. Testa, Patrick A., 2018. "Education and propaganda: Tradeoffs to public education provision in nondemocracies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 66-81.
    3. Hong, Justin Jihao & Lyu, Yuhan, 2025. "Not always a Panacea: History education and identity-building in Taiwan," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    4. Chen, Wei-Lin & Lin, Ming-Jen & Yang, Tzu-Ting, 2023. "Curriculum and national identity: Evidence from the 1997 curriculum reform in Taiwan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    5. Eiji Yamamura, 2017. "Historical education levels and present-day non-cognitive skills," Journal of Economics and Econometrics, Economics and Econometrics Society, vol. 60(1), pages 28-51.
    6. Roth, Christopher & Sumarto, Sudarno, 2015. "Does Education Increase Interethnic and Interreligious Tolerance? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," MPRA Paper 64558, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Yamamura, Eiji & Managi, Shunsuke & Tsutsui, Yoshiro, 2019. "Male pupils taught by female homeroom teachers show a higher preference for Corporate Social Responsibility in adulthood," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    8. Cabrales, Antonio & Calvó-Armengol, Antoni & Zenou, Yves, 2011. "Social interactions and spillovers," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 339-360, June.
    9. Daron Acemoglu & Tuomas Pekkarinen & Kjell G Salvanes & Matti Sarvimäki, 2025. "The Making of Social Democracy: the Economic and Electoral Consequences of Norway’s 1936 Folk School Reform," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 119-158.
    10. John F. Helliwell & Robert D. Putnam, 2007. "Education and Social Capital," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 1-19, Winter.
    11. Gradstein, Mark & Justman, Moshe, 2019. "Immigration, Diversity and Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 14008, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Filipe R. Campante & Davin Chor, 2012. "Why Was the Arab World Poised for Revolution? Schooling, Economic Opportunities, and the Arab Spring," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(2), pages 167-188, Spring.
    13. Seeun Jung, 2015. "Does education affect risk aversion? Evidence from the British education reform," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(28), pages 2924-2938, June.
    14. Campante, Filipe R. & Chor, Davin, 2014. "“The people want the fall of the regime”: Schooling, political protest, and the economy," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 495-517.
    15. Chevalier, Arnaud & Doyle, Orla, 2012. "Schooling and Voter Turnout: Is there an American Exception?," IZA Discussion Papers 6539, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Simon Briole & Marc Gurgand & Éric Maurin & Sandra McNally & Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela & Daniel Santín, 2025. "The Making of Civic Virtues: A School-Based Experiment in Three Countries," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 496-521, August.
    17. Daniel Miles-Touya & Máximo Rossi, 2015. "Cultural Transmission of Civic Attitudes," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0715, Department of Economics - dECON.
    18. Delavande, Adeline & Zafar, Basit, 2015. "Stereotypes and Madrassas: Experimental evidence from Pakistan," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 247-267.
    19. Marcus Österman, 2021. "Can We Trust Education for Fostering Trust? Quasi-experimental Evidence on the Effect of Education and Tracking on Social Trust," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 211-233, February.
    20. Fabrice Murtin & Romain Wacziarg, 2014. "The democratic transition," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 141-181, June.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:14024. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: TANIMOTO, Toko (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rietijp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.