Childhood Shocks Across Ages and Human Capital Formation

Pedro Carneiro, Kjell Salvanes (kjell.salvanes@nhh.no), Barton Willage and Alexander Willén (alexander.willen@nhh.no)
Additional contact information
Kjell Salvanes: Norges Handelshøyskole
Alexander Willén: Norwegian School of Economics, CESifo, and UCLS
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Alexander Willén (alexander.willen@nhh.no)

No 2023-018, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: We provide estimates of the causal impact of shocks to home environments during childhood on the human capital formation of children and their adult earnings, and document how these impacts differ depending on the age of the child when the shock occurs. We do so by comparing the outcomes of children whose parents experienced an involuntary job loss at different points in time. The rich data we have access to enable us to examine a broad range of short- and long-term educational outcomes related to performance, attainment, and behavior. In addition, for a subsample of our cohorts we can explore earnings effects at age 30. Consistent with other studies, we confirm that early childhood represents a crucial time for acquiring skills and abilities, but also establish that changes in the home environment for children in early adolescence matter as much, and sometimes more. We rationalize these results by noting that sensitive periods for different skills occur at different stages of childhood. Furthermore, it is during early adolescence that children face key junctures in their educational choices.

Keywords: early childhood development; intergenerational links; human capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 I20 J12 J13 J63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab, nep-ltv, nep-neu and nep-ure
Note: MIP
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Carnie ... um-cap-formation.pdf First version, July 26, 2023 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hka:wpaper:2023-018

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