Parents’ influence on children’s future orientation and saving

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the notion that the behaviour of parents (particularly that related to inter-temporal choice) influences the economic behaviour of their children. Exploiting Dutch panel data, we compare the future orientation, conscientiousness and saving of children aged 16–21 with those of their parents in order to explore the notion that an approach to economic problems and decisions is transferred from one generation to the next. In addition, we study if aspects of economic socialisation influence economic behaviour in adult life. The results show that parental behaviour (such as discussing financial matters with children) and parental orientations (conscientiousness, future orientation) have a weak but clear impact on children’s economic behaviour as well as on economic behaviour in adulthood.