For a long time, social scientists have used correlations in social status, measured by such characteristics as schooling, income or occupation, across family members to capture family resemblance in social status. In this study, we use millions of records from a public registry to estimate the wealth correlations among Taiwanese kinship members, from the closest parent-child pairing, to the farthest kinship ties, with only 1/32 genetic relatedness. Based on this wealth correlation, we present a complete picture of economic similarity among kin members. These correlations give us a better grasp of the hitherto obscure Chinese family structure than that of mechanical genetic relatedness. We obtain statistical evidence to support the following hypotheses: family members’ wealth resemblance to male egos is stronger than to female egos; wealth correlations are larger along patrilineal lines than matrilineal counterparts; wealthy families have larger correlations within the nuclear family members but smaller outside it; and adopted children have weaker wealth resemblance with close relatives.
Variations of Wealth Resemblance by Family Relationship Types in Modern Chinese Families (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, PNAS, 2019)
2019/02/12