Correlation, Consumption, Confusion, or Constraints: Why do Poor Children Perform so Poorly?

Lance Lochner and Elizabeth Caucutt

No 158, 2016 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: Early developing and persistent gaps in child achievement by family income combined with the importance of adolescent skill levels for educational attainment and lifetime earnings suggest that a key component of intergenerational economic and social mobility is determined by the time individuals enter school. After providing new evidence of important differences in early child investments by family income, we study four leading mechanisms thought to explain these gaps: an intergenerational correlation in ability, a consumption value of investment, information frictions, and credit constraints. Specifically, we evaluate the extent to which these mechanisms are consistent with other important stylized facts related to the marginal returns on investments and the effects of parental income on child investments and skills.

Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-dge
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Related works:
Journal Article: Correlation, Consumption, Confusion, or Constraints: Why Do Poor Children Perform so Poorly? (2017)
Working Paper: Correlation, Consumption, Confusion, or Constraints: Why do Poor Children Perform so Poorly? (2015)
Working Paper: Correlation, Consumption, Confusion, or Constraints: Why do Poor Children Perform so Poorly? (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:red:sed016:158

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