The so-called "silver spoon" effectí¢â‚¬”in which wealthí‚  is passed down from one generation to anotherí¢â‚¬”is well established in some of the world's most ancient economies, according to an internationalí‚  study reported in the Oct. 30 issue of Science.

The study expands economists' conventional focus on material riches, and looks at various kinds of wealth, such as hunting success, food-sharing partners and kinship networks.

The team of researchersí¢â‚¬”including Bobbi Low, a Conservation Biology professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environmentí¢â‚¬” found that some kinds of wealth, like material possessions, are much more easily passed on than social networks or foraging abilities.

Societies where material wealth is most valued are therefore the most unequal, said Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, an anthropology professor at the University of California-Davis who coordinated the study with economist Samuel Bowles of the Santa Fe Institute.

The researchers also showed that levels of inequality are influenced both by the types of wealth important to a society and the governing rules and regulations.

For years, studies of economic inequality have been limited by a lack of data on all but contemporary, market-based societies. To broaden the scope of that knowledge, Borgerhoff Mulder, Bowles and 24 other anthropologists, economists and statisticians from more than a dozen institutions analyzed patterns of inherited wealth and economic inequality around the world.

The research is part of the ongoing Persistent Inequality project of the Behavioral Sciences Program based at the Santa Fe Institute. The project has received funding from the institute's Cowan Endowment, the Russell Sage Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

Additional Resources:
More about the research project: http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9291
Sante Fe Institute: http://www.santafe.edu/