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This paper examines ways that families use time to shape their children's health behaviors. Specifically, it explores ways that parents can prepare children to make health-enhancing choices as adults. It also analyzes ways that offspring manage their time during young adulthood, when they are old enough to make independent decisions about whether they will spend their time producing health, as the Grossman model argues that individuals can do (Grossman 2000). The empirical research uses time diary data from the Child Development Supplement CDS), data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) core and the PSID's Transition to Adulthood (TA) module. By examining the intergenerational transmission of healthy behaviors, it is possible to better understand decisions individuals make in adulthood.

A wide range of economic and health behaviors are influenced by individuals' attitudes toward the future - including investments in human capital, health capital and financial capital. Intergenerational correlations in such behaviors suggest an important role the family may play in transmitting time preferences to children. This article presents a model of parental investment in future-oriented capital, where parents shape their children's time preference rates. The research identifies a dual role for a parent's time preference rate in the process of shaping the offspring's attitude toward the future, and discusses paths through which parents may socialize children to be patient. The model's implications are studied by investigating the parent-child correlation in pension participation using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics.

Why do estimates of the intergenerational persistence in earnings vary so much for the United States? Recent research suggests that life-cycle bias may be a major factor (Haider and Solon 2006; Grawe 2006). In this paper we estimate the intergenerational correlation in lifetime earnings by using sons' and fathers' earnings at similar ages in order to account for lifecycle bias. Our estimate based on earnings measured at 35-44 for both fathers and sons is similar to that for the age range 45-54.