The Role of Childhood Health for the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital: Evidence from Administrative Data

Martin Salm and Daniel Schunk

No 3646, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We use unique administrative German data to examine the role of childhood health for the intergenerational transmission of human capital. Specifically, we examine the extent to which a comprehensive list of health conditions – diagnosed by government physicians – can account for developmental gaps between the children of college educated parents and those of less educated parents. In total, health conditions explain 18% of the gap in cognitive ability and 65% of that in language ability, based on estimations with sibling fixed effects. Thus, policies aimed at reducing disparities in child achievement should also focus on improving the health of disadvantaged children.

Keywords: human capital formation; health inequality; intergenerational mobility; childhood health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I20 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2008-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-hrm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published - revised version published as 'The Relationship between Child Health, Developmental Gaps, and Parental Education: Evidence from Administrative Data' in: Journal of the European Economic Association, 2012, 10 (6), 1425-1449

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Working Paper: The role of childhood health for the intergenerational transmission of human capital: Evidence from administrative data (2008)
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