Individual Heterogeneities, Social Environment and Life Outcomes

Abstract

Individuals differ not only by gender and hair color, they also exhibit heterogeneities in various probably not fully genetically determined dimensions as personality, preferences and skills. Moreover, individuals live in different social environments and yield unequal life outcomes as health or income. Understanding how differences in these aspects affect each other is of relevance not only for behavioral sciences, but also for informing policy as it helps to uncover reasons for social mobility and to target intervention programs. In this regard, especially the understanding of malleability of individual heterogeneities and life outcomes in response to social environment is of great interest. In general, despite their fundamental importance, little is known about the interactions between the three aspects named in the title. <br /> This dissertation consists of five self-contained chapters which jointly seek to contribute to a better understanding of the interactions within the triangle of individual heterogeneities, social environment and life outcomes. To do so, Chapter 1 and 2 consider the relation between individual heterogeneities, as personality and preferences, and life outcomes, as income, health and education. Chapter 3 and 4 analyze the role of (early) social environment on the development process of personality and preferences. Finally, Chapter 5 considers the direct effect of social environment on life outcomes.