Maternal education and child health: Causal evidence from Denmark

Jacob Arendt, Mads Lybech Christensen and Anders Hjorth-Trolle

Journal of Health Economics, 2021, vol. 80, issue C

Abstract: This study examines how maternal education shapes the life and health of their children. Causal effects are identified from a Danish school reform that increased minimum compulsory schooling from 7 to 9 years in 1972 and estimates are based on large administrative registers. We find that the reform as well as maternal education when instrumented by it, has significant, positive effects on mothers’ age at first birth and maternal health. Nevertheless, maternal education has no systematic causal effects on child health, neither at birth, during childhood, or in adolescence. This null finding is robust to a wide range of model specifications.

Keywords: Intergenerational transmission; Returns to education; Health; Compulsory schooling reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 I21 I26 J12 J24 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:80:y:2021:i:c:s0167629621001375

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2021.102552

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