Effects of Family Background on Earnings and Returns to Schooling: Evidence from Brazil

David Lam and Robert Schoeni

Journal of Political Economy, 1993, vol. 101, issue 4, 710-40

Abstract: The authors investigate whether omitted family background variables are responsible for high returns to schooling estimated in Brazil. Returns to schooling fall by about one-third when parental schooling is added to wage equations. Surprisingly, the schooling of fathers-in-law has larger effects on wages than the schooling of fathers. On the basis of a model of assortative mating, the authors interpret this as evidence that parental characteristics represent unobservable worker attributes rather than nepotism in the labor market. They conclude that the 'family background bias' in returns to schooling is modest and need not imply returns to family connections. Copyright 1993 by University of Chicago Press.

Date: 1993
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (228)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/261894 full text (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. See http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JPE for details.

Related works:
Working Paper: Effects on Family Background on Earnings and Returns to Schooling: Evidence from Brazil (1996)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jpolec:v:101:y:1993:i:4:p:710-40

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Political Economy from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().