Economic Uncertainty, Parental Selection and Children’s Educational Outcomes

Arnaud Chevalier and Olivier Marie

No 201506, Working Papers from Geary Institute, University College Dublin

Abstract: After the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany experienced an unprecedented temporary drop in fertility driven by economic uncertainty. Using various educational measures, we show that the children born during this nativity slump perform worse from an early age onwards. Consistent with negative selection, mothers who gave birth in that period had worse observed personal characteristics. These children are also less likely to have grown up within stable family environment. Investigating underlying mechanisms reveals that parental educational input and emotional attachment were also lower for these children. Finally, sibling analysis enable us to reject time of birth effects.

Keywords: Parental selection; fertility; economic uncertainty; education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2015-04-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-edu and nep-eur
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Economic Uncertainty, Parental Selection, and Children’s Educational Outcomes (2017)
Working Paper: Economic Uncertainty, Parental Selection, and Children's Educational Outcomes (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201506

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