Does Increasing Women's Schooling Raise the Schooling of the Next Generation?

Abstract

The positive cross-sectional relationship between the schooling of mothers and their children is substantially biased upward due to correlations between schooling and heritable ability as well as assortative mating. An increase in the schooling of women would not have beneficial effects in terms of the schooling of children. Increased maternal schooling leads to reduced home time for mothers. Anticipating the consequences of investing in women's schooling requires attention to the role that schooling plays in the marriage market as well as to opportunities in the labor market for women.