The Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital: Exploring the Role of Skills and Health Using Data on Adoptees and Twins

Petter Lundborg, Martin Nordin and Dan-Olof Rooth

No 6099, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In this paper, we focus on possible causal mechanisms behind the intergenerational transmission of human capital. For this purpose, we use both an adoption and a twin design and study the effect of parents' education on their children's cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, and health. Our results show that greater parental education increases children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills, as well as their health. These results suggest that the effect of parents' education on children's education may work partly through the positive effect that parental education has on children's skills and health.

Keywords: cognitive skills; health; education; human capital; intergenerational transmission; non-cognitive skills; adoptees; twins (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C41 I11 I12 J12 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2011-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-evo, nep-hea, nep-hrm, nep-lab, nep-ltv and nep-neu
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published - published as 'The intergenerational transmission of human capital: the role of skills and health' in: Journal of Population Economics, 2018, 31 (4), 1035-1065.'

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