A note on sibling rivalry and good-kid, bad-kid equilibria

摘要

When parents with concave utility reward good behaviour on the part of their children with a share of the marginal utility they derive from good behaviour, a decrease in good behaviour by kid /causes kid /to increase the amount of good behaviour he/she supplies in equilibrium. This may explain why simultaneous good-kid behaviour is rare and also why children try to get their siblings into trouble.