Local Distortions in Parental Beliefs over Child Skill

Josh Kinsler and Ronni Pavan

Journal of Political Economy, 2021, vol. 129, issue 1, 81 - 100

Abstract: Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Class of 1999, we show that parental beliefs about a child’s cognitive skill relative to children of the same age are distorted by a child’s cognitive skill relative to children in the same school. Parents of children attending schools with low (high) average skills tend to believe their child is higher (lower) in the overall skill distribution than they actually are. Teacher evaluations of child skill also exhibit local distortions, providing a channel through which parental biases might arise. Finally, we relate parental beliefs and investment, providing insight on how local distortions may impact the skill distribution.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/711347 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/711347 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
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:doi:10.1086/711347

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 ().