Maternal Education, Parental Investment and Non-cognitive Characteristics in Rural China

Jessica Leight and Elaine Liu

No 2016-05, Department of Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics, Williams College

Abstract: This paper evaluates the parental response to non-cognitive variation across siblings in Gansu province, China, employing a household fixed effects specification. The non-cognitive indices are defined as the inverse of externalizing challenges (behavioral problems) and internalizing challenges (anxiety and withdrawal). The results suggest that there is significant heterogeneity with respect to maternal education; educated mothers compensate for differences between their children, investing more in a child exhibiting greater non-cognitive deficits, while less educated mothers reinforce these differences. Most importantly, there is evidence that these investments lead to the narrowing of non-cognitive deficits over time for children of more educated mothers.

Keywords: non-cognitive characteristics; parental investment; intrahousehold allocation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 I24 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2016-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-neu and nep-tra
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https://web.williams.edu/Economics/wp/LeightLiuMaternalEducationChina.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Maternal Education, Parental Investment, and Noncognitive Characteristics in Rural China (2020)
Working Paper: Maternal Education, Parental Investment and Non-Cognitive Characteristics in Rural China (2018)
Working Paper: Maternal education, parental investment and non-cognitive characteristics in rural China (2018)
Working Paper: Maternal Education, Parental Investment and Non-Cognitive Characteristics in Rural China (2018)
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