Vietnam Era Fathers: The Intergenerational Transmission of Tertiary Education

Abstract

A strong positive correlation between the educational attainment of parents and their children is well documented. Determining whether this relationship is due to nature (selection) or nurture (causal factors) is both a challenge and an important policy issue. We use the Vietnam era draft lottery and educational exemptions as a “natural experiment” to address this issue. Substantially more men attended university during this war, creating a cohort of fathers many members of which would not normally have enrolled in tertiary education (TE). Using US Current Population Survey (CPS) and Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data on the father’s and his children’s TE involvement, we find that, for this war cohort, the intergenerational transmission leading their children to enrollment in TE is at least as high (CPS) or even higher (PSID) than that of control cohorts. In the context of university attendance in the US, these findings suggest that nurture plays an important additional role.