The determinants and structure of adolescents' beliefs about the economy

Although it is of both practical and theoretical importance very little work has been done on adolescents' knowledge of, and beliefs about, the economy. Two studies are reported in this paper--the first concerns the determinants of economic values in a population of 16-17 year old British schoolchildren, and the second concerns economic preferences and knowledge in a larger group of slightly older adolescents. By-and-large the pattern of results is not dissimilar from other studies done on older children. The results are discussed in terms of the literature on economic socialization.