Intergenerational Transmission Of Educational Attainment Research Articles

The intergenerational transmission of educational attainment: A closer look at the (interrelated) roles of paternal involvement and genetic inheritance.

Numerous studies have documented a strong intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. In explaining this transmission, separate fields of research have studied separate mechanisms. To obtain a more complete understanding, the current study integrates insights from the fields of behavioural sciences and genetics and examines the extent to which paternal involvement and children's polygenic score (PGS) are unique underlying mechanisms, correlate with each other, and/or act as important confounders in the intergenerational transmission of fathers' educational attainment. To answer our research questions, we use rich data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 4,579). Firstly, results from our mediation analyses showed a significant association between fathers' educational attainment and children's educational attainment (0.303). This association is for about 4 per cent accounted for by paternal involvement, whereas a much larger share, 21 per cent, is accounted for by children's education PGS. Secondly, our results showed that these genetic and behavioural factors are significantly correlated with each other (correlations between 0.06 and 0.09). Thirdly, we found support for genetic confounding, as adding children's education PGS to the model reduced the association between paternal involvement and children's educational attainment by 11 per cent. Fourthly, evidence for social confounding was almost negligible (the association between child's education PGS and educational attainment was only reduced by half of a per cent). Our findings highlight the importance of integrating insights and data from multiple disciplines in understanding the mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of inequality, as our study reveals that behavioural and genetic influences overlap, correlate, and confound each other as mechanisms underlying this transmission.

The Schooling Gap between the Deep South and the Rest of the South in Thailand

ABSTRACT This paper aims to compare the educational attainment of a conflict region (the Deep South) and a non-conflict region (the rest of the South) of Thailand using the Socio-Economic Survey, 2015. This paper employs the Instrumental Variable approach and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition in an intergenerational regression model. When controlling parental schooling, household income and size, religion, and gender, the results show that children from the Deep South obtain almost one year less schooling than children from the rest of the Southern region. Interestingly, Muslims are ahead in terms of educational attainment when compared to non-Muslims in the non-conflict region, but not in the conflict region. Females outperform males in both regions, but the coefficient of female dummy is higher in the non-conflict region. Moreover, the rate of intergenerational transmission of educational attainment is higher in the Deep South compared to that in the rest of the southern region, which may lead to long-term educational inequality in the Deep South region. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition confirms that the 40% schooling gap between these two regions is unexplained but might be due to the chronic social unrest. The findings of this paper show that customized educational reforms and policies to resolve the conflict in the Deep South of Thailand should be employed.

Parental assortative mating and the intergenerational transmission of human capital

We study the contribution of parental educational assortative mating to the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. We develop an empirical model for educational correlations within the family in which parental educational sorting can translate into intergenerational transmission jointly by both parents, or transmission can originate from each parent independently. Estimating the model using educational attainment from Danish population-based administrative data for over 400,000 families, we find that on average 75 percent of the intergenerational correlation in education is driven by the joint contribution of the parents. We also document a 38 percent decline of assortative mating in education for parents born between the early 1920s and the early 1950s. While the raw correlations also show decreases in father- and mother-specific intergenerational transmissions of educational attainment, our model shows that once we decompose all factors of intergenerational mobility, the share of intergenerational transmission accounted for by parent-specific factors increased from 7 to 27 percent; an increase compensated by a corresponding fall in joint intergenerational transmission from both parents, leaving total intergenerational persistence unchanged. The mechanisms of intergenerational transmission have changed, with an increased importance of one-to-one parent-child relationships.

Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment: How Important Are Children’s Personality Characteristics?

This study examines the role of a wide range of personality characteristics—such as the Big Five personality traits, self-esteem, goal pursuit/adjustment, social behavior, and educational aspirations—for the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in Germany, and compares their relative importance with that of cognitive skills. We use information on more than 8,000 students from the German National Educational Panel Study. We find that personality characteristics do not mediate the association between parents’ and children’s attainment of the university entrance qualification (the Abitur) by age 19/20. Only educational aspirations are a strong mediator for intergenerational educational transmission. A few personality characteristics moderate intergenerational educational transmission, and they do so in favor of children with high-educated parents either as Matthew effects or compensatory advantages. In contrast to personality characteristics, cognitive skills act as strong mediators, while moderation is rather weak when accounting for personality characteristics—but again, they work in favor of privileged children. Our German study reveals similarities but also differences compared with the mostly U.S.- and U.K.-based research and inspires to rethink the importance of personality characteristics and cognitive skills for intergenerational education attainment.

How far the apple falls from the tree: Intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in Indonesia

We use five waves of the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) to create unique father-son matched data of the male population (aged 25–53). Using this data, we investigate the evolution of intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in Indonesia over time, by ethnicities (six major ethnic groups), and by regions (twelve provinces). To estimate the persistence in education (measured as schooling years of the father as a predictor of schooling years of the son), we use coefficient of correlation and regression coefficient methods. Our results from the regression coefficient suggest that persistence in Indonesia is declined over time. Whereas, the results from the coefficient of correlation reveals no secular trend in education persistence over time. Thus, to understand the reason behind the secular trend in the correlation coefficient we decompose the correlation following Checchi and García-Peñalosa (2008). The decomposed intergenerational correlation shows that although the persistence is declined at the lower-end of fathers’ education distribution, it is increased at the top-end of the distribution. Therefore, we argue that the coefficient of correlation should be used with caution while analyzing the education policy particularly the persistence in education. Thereafter, we document the stationary distribution and find the conclusive evidence of non-convergence in educational attainment over time among both, ethnicities and regions.

The gender gap in intergenerational mobility

This paper employs mobility matrices, univariate regressions and multivariate econometric techniques based on the recently published Brazilian National Household Sampling Survey to investigate the relevance of the gendered patterns in the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. The empirical evidence from these three different approaches is absolutely unanimous: In Brazil there is a significant variation in degree of mobility across genders, with a higher mobility level for daughters than for sons. The reason for this gender gap in mobility lies in the chances of attaining the educational levels: regardless of the educational background of the parents, females have a lower chance of remaining without school certificate and a greater probability to achieve a tertiary education. This study has demonstrated also that the educational attainment of children is strongly associated with the education of their most educated parent, regardless of their gender and this correlation is higher for female than for male.

Parental Assortative Mating and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital

We study the contribution of parental similarity in schooling levels to the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. We develop an empirical model for educational correlations within the family in which parental sorting can translate into intergenerational transmission, or transmission can originate from each parent independently. Estimating the model using educational attainment from Danish population-based administrative data for over 400,000 families, we find that about 75 percent of the intergenerational correlation in education is driven by the joint contribution of the parents. We also document a sizeable secular decline of parental assortative mating in education, with a corresponding fall in joint intergenerational transmission from both parents; a fall compensated by an increase in parent-specific intergenerational transmission, leaving total intergenerational persistence unchanged. The mechanisms of intergenerational transmission have changed, with an increased importance of one-to-one parent-child relationships.

How Educational, Economic, and Cultural Resources Do Matter: Cohort Differences in the Impact of Parental Resources on Educational Attainment in the Socialist and Post-Socialist Contexts

The paper concentrates on the ways the interplay of parental economic, educational, and cultural resources in the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment has changed due to the marketization of post-socialist societies and educational systems. We combine two different approaches: a variable-based regression analysis and a case-based qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). The analysis is based on the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2011 and concentrates on Estonia. The results indicate that parental educational and cultural resources, manifested in a large home library, enhance children’s attainment of higher education. It does so not only in post-socialist Estonia but also during the socialist period despite the Soviet educational system being designed explicitly to eliminate social privilege. Comparison of cohorts who attained higher education during the mid-socialist, late-socialist, and post-socialist periods shows that for all of them common combination with high level of all considered parental resources is highly effective in securing attainment of higher education. In addition to that common effective combination of parental resources, each cohort has its own particular combination of parental resources that effectively enabled attainment of higher education. The influence of the resources that the family deploys tends to accumulate instead of being a compensation channel that conveys parental influence on education. Regression analysis and QCA are complementary: The former allows assessment of the net impact of each individual parental resource on attainment of higher education. The latter reveals the differential impact of individual resources depending of their configurations.

Ethnic capital and intergenerational transmission of educational attainment

SummaryThis paper studies the role of ethnicity in the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment within the framework outlined by Borjas (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1992, 107(1), 123–150). Relying on heteroskedasticity to identify parameters in the presence of endogenous regressors, I find evidence that the ordinary least squares estimates of the effect of ethnic capital on intergenerational transmission of education are biased upwards due to the transfer of unobserved ability. I also find that, while the role of parental capital has declined over time, ethnic capital has a relatively constant effect on intergenerational transmission of educational attainment.

Who Pays the Price for Parental Education–Occupation Mismatch? Evidence From an Israeli City

In recent years, education–occupation mismatch has become an important area of social research. However, little is known about its impact on the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. This study investigates the possible negative consequences of a specific aspect of parental education–occupation mismatch, also known as overeducation, for high school students. Drawing from a sample of high school students in an Israeli city with a high incidence of overeducation, our analysis suggests that parental education–occupation mismatch does not affect student expectations for progressing to higher education. The results did reveal, however, that maternal education–occupation mismatch is related to school truancy among boys and girls, and that paternal education–occupation mismatch contributes to lower odds of enrollment in advanced science courses, especially among boys.

Do borrowing constraints matter for intergenerational educational mobility? Evidence from Japan*

This paper examines the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment using microdata for Japan. By exploiting unique information on whether children have ever given up schooling for financial reasons and, if they have, which level of schooling they have forgone, it assesses the role of borrowing constraints in determining intergenerational educational mobility in a more direct manner than previous attempts. Despite a steady increase in the level of educational attainment, the regression results indicate the absence of an increase in intergenerational educational mobility in postwar Japan. Moreover, while borrowing constraints used to play a significant role in lowering intergenerational educational mobility, they no longer seem to matter for the youngest cohort examined in this paper. Instead, our analysis shows that the relative importance of adolescent academic ability for children’s educational attainment has increased in recent years, thereby underlining the increasing importance of earlier investments in children’s human capital for their subsequent academic advancement.

The intergenerational transmission of educational attainment among non-residential fathers and their children

Research on the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment tends to assume that children are raised in traditional two-parent families. However, due to the rising prevalence of divorce, non-residential fatherhood is increasingly common in Western societies. This study investigates the differences in intergenerational transmission between residential and non-residential fathers because non-residential fatherhood might disrupt mechanisms that are assumed to be crucial for intergenerational transmission, such as regular contact between parents and children. In addition, we examine three factors that might explain why some non-residential fathers are better able to transmit their educational attainment than others: (1) the number of years a father lived with the child prior to divorce (exposure), (2) the age of the child at the time of divorce (timing) and (3) the year in which non-residential fatherhood started (cohort differences). The hypotheses are based on Coleman’s concept of ‘within-family social capital’. Our study focuses on the Dutch context and we use the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS) (birth cohorts 1960–1985) as well as register data from the System of Social statistical Datasets (SSD) (birth cohort 1995) of Statistics Netherlands. The results of the NKPS indicate that the association between the educational attainment of fathers and children is weaker for non-residential fathers than for residential fathers. However, the difference between residential and non-residential fathers is almost absent in the more recent cohorts of the SSD. We ascribe those cohort differences to an increase in shared custody arrangements since the late 1990s.

Personality and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment: Evidence from Germany.

Research based in the United States, with its relatively open educational system, has found that personality mediates the relationship between parents' and child's educational attainment and this mediational pattern is especially beneficial to students from less-educated households. Yet in highly structured, competitive educational systems, personality characteristics may not predict attainment or may be more or less consequential at different points in the educational career. We examine the salience of personality in the educational attainment process in the German educational system. Data come from a longitudinal sample of 682 17 to 25 year-olds (54% female) from the 2005 and 2015 German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Results show that adolescent personality traits-openness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness-are associated with educational attainment, but personality plays a negligible role in the intergenerational transmission of education. Personality is influential before the decision about the type of secondary degree that a student will pursue (during adolescence). After that turning point, when students have entered different pathways through the system, personality is less salient. Cross-national comparisons in a life course framework broaden the scope of current research on non-cognitive skills and processes of socioeconomic attainment, alerting the analyst to the importance of both institutional structures and the changing importance of these skills at different points in the life course.

Intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in adoptive families in the Netherlands

To improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the strong association between family background and children’s educational attainment, we examined intergenerational transmission within families where genetic transmission is absent. Specifically, we investigated the effect of parent’s education and income on the educational attainment of their foreign-born adopted children. A large-scale register database was used, which contains information on the adoption status, educational level in secondary school and parental characteristics of all 15-year old children living in the Netherlands in the years 2011–2013. This study demonstrated that parental education mainly influenced their children’s education when they were genetically related and that the influence was weak when they were adopted. Parental income, on the other hand, affected both adopted and biological children’s educational attainment. Hence, the results suggested that genetic transmission and economic capital play a substantial role in intergenerational transmission of educational attainment.

Ethnic Capital and Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment

This paper studies the role of ethnicity in the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. Relying on heteroskedasticity to identify parameters in the presence of endogenous regressors, I revisit Borjas ethnic capital hypothesis. I find evidence that the OLS estimates of the effect of ethnic capital on intergenerational transmission of education are biased upwards due to the transfer of unobserved ability. I find that while the role of parental capital has declined over time, ethnic capital has a relatively constant effect on intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. I also find that only women benefit from the quality of the ethnic environment and that the intergenerational transfer of ethnic capital is most prevalent in communities with strong ties measured with endogamy rates.

Personality and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment: Evidence from Germany

Personality and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment: Evidence from Germany

The Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital and Earnings in Contemporary Russia

We make use of longitudinal data for the Russian economy over 1994-2013 to obtain earnings and education information about parents and children. We estimate the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment and earning capacity and find high intergenerational correlation of earnings for both sons and daughters independently of educational qualifications. We attribute them to the impact of informal networks. We also find high correlation of educational qualifications but with critical variations due to labour market conditions. At the time of transition around 1990 children's educational attainment fell well below parents but recovered a decade later when the economy was booming.

Father Presence and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment

Ariel Kalil, Magne Mogstad, Mari Rege and Mark E. Votruba

Like Father, Like Son? Intergenerational Educational Mobility in India.

Using the nationally representative India Human Development Survey (IHDS), we create a unique son-father matched data set that is representative of the entire adult male population (aged 20-65) in India. We use these data to document the evolution of intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in India over time, among different castes and states for the birth cohorts of 1940-1985. We find that educational persistence, as measured by the regression coefficient of father's education as a predictor of son's education, has declined over time. This implies that increases in average educational attainment are driven primarily by increases among children of less-educated fathers. However, we do not find such a declining trend in the correlation between educational attainment of sons and fathers, which is another commonly used measure of persistence. To understand the source of such a discrepancy between the two measures of educational persistence, we decompose the intergenerational correlation and find that although persistence has declined at the lower end of the fathers' educational distribution, it has increased at the top end of that distribution.

Intergenerational transmission of educational attainment: Three levels of parent-child communication as mediators.

Although the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment has been confirmed by many researchers, its mechanism still remains controversial. Parent-child communication has been regarded as one of the important mediators. The present study primarily aimed to examine the potentially mediating role of parent-child communication in the transmission of educational attainment, based on a sample of 366 Chinese fifth and sixth graders. Parent-child communication was measured against the three levels of the parents' communication ability, the quality of the father-child and mother-child communications, and the relation between the two dyadic communications. The results duplicated the positive effect of parents' educational attainment on children's academic achievement. Moreover, it was found that parents' communication ability alone played a mediating role, and that the three levels of parent-child communication constructed a "mediator chain" between the parents' educational attainment and the children's academic achievement. Finally, the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in China and the mediating role of the three levels of parent-child communication were discussed.