The Return to College, Marriage, and Intergenerational Mobility

Eric Gould

No 18566, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper examines the idea that the increasing return to college is reducing intergenerational mobility by differentially impacting the investments in children by parents across education groups. A larger return to college will create stronger incentives to invest in children by parents with more education, if educated parents have a comparative advantage in producing human capital in children. Given the importance of a two-parent household on childhood development, marital status is a critical investment decision that parents consider. Relative to less-educated mothers, the analysis shows that educated mothers in states with a larger increase in the return to education are more likely to be married, less likely to divorce, have a more educated spouse, and own more valuable houses. Their children also have relatively higher test scores in 8th grade and rates of college completion. These results are consistent with the increasing return to college differentially affecting the incentives for parental investments in children, which in turn, creates greater disparities in childhood conditions and reduces intergenerational mobility in education.

JEL-codes: I24 I26 J12 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-11
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18566 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: The Return to College, Marriage, and Intergenerational Mobility (2023)
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:cpr:ceprdp:18566

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18566

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().