Children's economic socialization: Summarizing the cross-cultural comparison of ten countries

Abstract

This paper summarizes the cross-cultural study of economic socialization detailed in the previous papers in this issue. The sample was drawn from 10 countries: Algeria, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Israel (town and kibbutz), Norway, Poland, West Germany, and Yugoslavia and administred to children age 8, 11 and 14. The topics covered were: (a) understanding who decides what, and why (prices, salaries, savings and investment, the mint); (b) reasoning: how well do children appreciate the consequences of economic events of national dimension; (c) attitudes: how do they account for the economic fate of individuals. In addition to the tabulation of answer types to individual questions, we subjected the data in each main part of the questionnaire to a Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) analysis. The progression with age is clear and in line with previous investigations in various countries. The differences between countries are harder to interpret and reasons for this are discussed.