Intergenerational Persistence in the Effects of Compulsory Schooling in the US

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

No 2024-003, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

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: Census; educational attainment; 19th century; maternal education; racial disparities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 H52 J12 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-ure
Note: HI, MIP
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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Galama ... ulsory-school-US.pdf First version, January 22, 2024 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Intergenerational Persistence in the Effects of Compulsory Schooling in the U.S (2024)
Working Paper: Intergenerational Persistence in the Effects of Compulsory Schooling in the U.S (2024)
Working Paper: Intergenerational Persistence in the Effects of Compulsory Schooling in the US (2024)
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