Parental Health and Child Schooling

Massimiliano Bratti and Mariapia Mendola

No 318, Development Working Papers from Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano

Abstract: Evidence on the role of parental health on child schooling is surprisingly thin. We explore this issue by estimating the short-run effects of parents\' illness on child school enrollment. Our analysis is based on household panel data from Bosnia-Herzegovina, a country whose health and educational systems underwent extensive destruction during the 1992-1995 war. Using child fixed effects to correct for potential endogeneity bias, we find that — contrary to the common wisdom that shocks to the primary household earner should have more negative consequences for child education — it is especially maternal health that makes a difference as far as child schooling is concerned. Children whose mothers self-reported having poor health are about 7 percentage points less likely to be enrolled in education at ages 15-24. These results are robust to considering alternative indicators of parental health status such as the presence of limitations in the activities of daily living and depres-sion symptoms. Moreover, we find that mothers\' health shocks have more negative consequences on younger children and sons.

Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina; children; education; parents; school; self-reported (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42
Date: 2011-10-17, Revised 2011-10-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Parental health and child schooling (2014)
Working Paper: Parental Health and Child Schooling (2012)
Working Paper: Parental Health and Child Schooling (2011)
Working Paper: Parental Health and Child Schooling (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:csl:devewp:318

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