Intergenerational Persistence in the Effects of Compulsory Schooling in the U.S

Titus Galama, Andrei Munteanu () and Kevin Thom
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Kevin Thom: Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

No 24-02, Working Papers from Research Group on Human Capital, University of Quebec in Montreal's School of Management

Abstract: Using linked records from the 1880 to 1940 full-count United States decennial censuses, we estimate the effects of parental exposure to compulsory schooling (CS) laws on the human capital outcomes of children, exploiting the staggered roll-out of state CS laws in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. CS reforms not only increased the educational attainment of exposed individuals, but also that of their children. We find that one extra year of maternal (paternal) exposure to CS increased children's educational attainment by 0.015 (0.016) years - larger than the average effects on the parents themselves, and larger than the few existing intergenerational estimates from studies of more recent reforms. We find particularly large effects on black families and first-born sons. Exploring mechanisms, we find suggestive evidence that higher parental exposure to CS affected children's outcomes through higher own human capital, marriage to more educated spouses, and a higher propensity to reside in neighborhoods with greater school resources (teacher-to-student ratios) and with higher average educational attainment.

Keywords: education; inequalities; compulsory schooling; human capital; intergenerational transmission; geographic sorting; assortative mating; racial inequalities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 H52 I24 I25 I26 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2024-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
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Related works:
Working Paper: Intergenerational Persistence in the Effects of Compulsory Schooling in the US (2024)
Working Paper: Intergenerational Persistence in the Effects of Compulsory Schooling in the U.S (2024)
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