How Do Parents Raise the Educational Attainment of Future Generations?

Erik Plug ()

No 652, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The problem with most intergenerational mobility estimates is that unmeasured and inherited abilities prevent us from drawing inferences. In this paper we estimate the intergenerational mobility of schooling and exploit differences between adopted and own birth children to obtain genetically unbiased estimates. Our results provide a much better insight on whether parents (and policy makers) can actually stimulate the educational attainment of future generations. Controlling for inherited abilities and assortative mating we find that the association between mother's (but not father's) and child schooling disappears.

Keywords: intergenerational mobility of schooling; adoption; inherited abilities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J13 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2002-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-mic
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Published - published as 'Estimating the Effect of Mother's Schooling on Children's Schooling Using a Sample of Adoptees' in: American Economic Review, 2004, 94 (1), 358-368

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