Intergenerational Human Capital Spillovers: Indonesia’s School Construction and Its Effects on the Next Generation

Abstract

We analyze the effects of increased access to education in one generation on human capital outcomes in the next generation. Using longitudinal data, we exploit the geographical and cohort variations in exposure to a massive primary school construction program in the 1970s in Indonesia. We show that the school building project increases primary school completion rates among both men and women. We find that children whose mothers were exposed to the school building project score higher on the national primary school examination, suggesting the importance of maternal education in the intergenerational transmission of human capital.