Transmission Of Human Capital Research Articles

More dads at home, more girls in maths‐intensive studies? Evidence from a parental leave reform

AbstractEvidence suggests that separate spheres gender norms discourage girls from maths. We therefore examine a policy that counteracts such norms among parents, and investigate whether it increases girls' participation in maths‐intensive studies. Specifically, we examine a parental leave reform that reserved one month of leave for fathers, and estimate its effect on children's study choices. We find that the reform increases the probability of doing a maths‐intensive programme in upper secondary education among girls whose father was otherwise reluctant to take leave. There is no effect on boys. We also conduct heterogeneity analyses to investigate whether the results can be explained by human capital transmission or the gender norms mechanism. The results of our analyses suggest that the gender norms mechanism is at play.

Does educational mismatch affect human capital investment in children? Evidence from China

ABSTRACT This study examines the impact of parental education-occupation (educational) mismatch on human capital investment (HCI) in children. Guided by interpretations from a family education investment model that allows parents to be over/undereducated, we conduct an empirical analysis using the panel data of parent‒child pairs from the 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). Our results show that, on average, children’s education expenditure decreases (increases) when parents are overeducated (undereducated), which is moderated by parental educational attainment. We also observe differing sensitivities between fathers and mothers, with a tendency to prioritize sons’ education over daughters’ education when experiencing educational mismatch. The impact of educational mismatch is more pronounced in urban households, whereas differences between nuclear and other household types are minimal. These findings highlight the importance of educational mismatch in intergenerational human capital transmission and suggest improving such mismatches to optimize HCIs and promote intergenerational mobility.

Birth Timing and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital

Birth Timing and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital

Colonial Missions and Persistent Inequality: Evidence from Human Capital Transmission

Colonial Missions and Persistent Inequality: Evidence from Human Capital Transmission

The Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital: Evidence from the Golden Age of Upward Mobility

School quality affects upward mobility in educational attainment. This conclusion comes from an analysis of families with coresident teenage children in the 1940 census. We study parents in the bottom quartile of the education distribution and define “upward mobility” as a generational move up the educational ladder to the top three quartiles of the child’s cohort. At the state level, upward mobility is strongly tied to teacher wages. This relationship holds when we narrow our focus to families on adjacent sides of state borders in the South, where state minimum salary laws created sharp teacher-wage differences between otherwise similar counties.

First Palestinian intifada and intergenerational transmission of human capital

This paper attempts to estimate the intergenerational transmission of human capital in Palestine. The main question is whether formal parental education improves their offspring’s cognitive skills and school achievements. I use the instrumental variable method in the estimations to overcome the potential endogeneity of parental education. The main source of variation in parental educational attainment is parents’ exposure to the First Palestinian Intifada (1988–1993) during their middle and high school ages. During the First Palestinian Intifada, many school days were lost due to frequent school closures and other restrictions. Furthermore, many young people preferred to search for low-skill employment in Israel, since it provided them with better wages than the local labour market and hardly required any level of educational attainment. This study employs two outcomes, namely the standardised cognitive test scores and school achievements during the academic year 2012/2013 for students between grade 5 and grade 9 in West Bank schools. Overall, the results support the hypothesis of a human capital spill-over but more so for girls than for boys, where the instrumental variables results are often insignificant because of their large standard errors.

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.

Economic Persistence Despite Adverse Policies: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan

Abstract We study the long-run persistence of relative economic well-being under adverse government policies using a combination of historical and contemporaneous data from Kyrgyzstan. After controlling for unobservable local effects, the economic well-being of Kyrgyz households in the 2010s correlates with the early twentieth-century average wealth of their tribes. Inequality at the tribe level in the 2010s correlates with wealth inequality in the early twentieth century. The likely channels of persistence are the inter-generational transmission of human capital, relative status, political power and cultural traits. Transmission of material wealth, differences in natural endowments or geographic sorting cannot explain persistence.

The Two-Pronged Middle Class: The Old Bourgeoisie, New State-Engineered Middle Class, and Democratic Development

We contribute to research on the democratic role of middle classes. Our paper distinguishes between middle classes emerging autonomously during gradual capitalist development and those fabricated rapidly as part of state-led modernization. To make the case for a conceptual distinction between these groups within one national setting, we employ author-assembled historical district data, survey, and archival materials for pre-Revolutionary Russia and its feudal estates. Our analysis reveals that the bourgeois estate ofmeshchanecovaries with post-communist democratic competitiveness and media freedoms, our proxies of regional democratic variations. We propose two causal pathways explaining the puzzling persistence of social structure despite the Bolsheviks’ leveling ideology and post-communist autocratic consolidation: (a) processes at the juncture of familial channels of human capital transmission and the revolutionaries’ modernization drive and (b) entrepreneurial value transmission outside of state policy. Our findings help refine recent work on political regime orientations of public-sector-dependent societies subjected to authoritarian modernization.

Maternal human capital accumulation and children's well-being.

Research examining the intergenerational transmission of human capital is subject to two limitations. First, for the parental generation, most studies focus on formal education but fail to consider vocational training experience, which has more variation than formal educational attainment over the life course. Second, most studies have found consistent conclusions using income and occupation for the children's outcomes but have generated mixed findings regarding health and cognitive ability. This study aims to answer whether mothers' additional vocational training beyond formal education is beneficial to children's health and cognitive ability. Applying fixed-effects regression to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Child and Young Adults datasets, this study finds that mothers' human capital accumulation is positively associated with higher cognitive scores for both boys and girls, but does not significantly predict children's illnesses or behavior problems. These findings bear implications for policy aimed at mitigating the intergenerational cycles of disadvantages.

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.

On the Family Origins of Human Capital Formation: Evidence from Donor Children

We introduce a novel strategy to study the intergenerational transmission of human capital, net of genetic skill transfers. For this purpose, we use unique data on children conceived through sperm and egg donation in IVF treatments in Denmark. Because the assignment of donors is not selective, the intergenerational human capital estimates allow for a causal nurture interpretation. Once we take account of genes, we find that only the education of mothers matters: the association between mother's education and child test scores is significant and large, whereas the association between father's education and child test scores is insignificant and practically zero.

Nepotism vs. Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital in Academia (1088–1800)

We argue that the waning of nepotism in academia bolstered scientific production in pre-industrial Europe. We build a database of families of scholars (1088–1800), measure their scientific output, and develop a general method to disentangle nepotism from inherited human capital—two determinants of occupational persistence. This requires jointly addressing measurement error in human capital proxies and sample selection bias arising from nepotism. Our method exploits multi-generation correlations together with parent-child distributional differences to identify the structural parameters of a first-order Markov process of human capital transmission with nepotism. We find an intergenerational human capital elasticity of 0.59, higher than that suggested by parent-child elasticities, yet lower than multi-generation estimates ignoring nepotism. In early academia, 40 percent of scholars’ sons achieved their position because of nepotism. Nepotism was lower in science than in law and in Protestant than in Catholic institutions, and declined substantially during the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment—two periods of buoyant scientific advancement.

First Palestinian Intifada and Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital

This paper attempts to estimate the intergenerational transmission of human capital in Palestine. The main question is whether formal parental education improves their offspring’s cognitive skills and school achievements. I use the instrumental variable (IV) method in the estimations to overcome the potential endogeneity of parental education. The main source of variation in parental educational attainment is parents’ exposure to the First Palestinian Intifada (1988–93) during their middle- and high school ages. During the First Palestinian Intifada, many school days were lost due to frequent school closures and other restrictions. Furthermore, many young people preferred to search for low-skill employment in Israel, since it provided them with better wages than the local labor market and hardly required any level of educational attainment. This study employs two outcomes, namely the standardized cognitive test scores and school achievements during the academic year 2012/13 for students between grade 5 and grade 9 in West Bank schools. Overall, the results support the hypothesis of a human capital spillover but more so for girls than for boys, where the IV results are often insignificant because of their large standard errors.

The Impact of Migration Controls on Urban Fiscal Policies and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital in China

Using newly available data, we document that internal migrants do not enjoy the same access to local public goods and services as city residents in China. We estimate a spatial overlapping generations model with heterogeneous households to quantify the impact of the Hukou system on urban fiscal policies and access to educational opportunities. We find that migrants provide large fiscal externalities to all major cities. We show the feasibility of alternative internal migration policies that offer the potential of decreasing the inequality within China while at the same time increasing the overall level of human capital in the economy.

Does Money Matter for Intergenerational Income Transmission?

The intergenerational income elasticity (IIE) is a crucial measure of income mobility. In this article, we develop a structural model to examine the channels through which this elasticity operates. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we separately identify the human capital and the financial components. The human capital component examines the transmission of human capital, independent of financial investments, whereas the financial component examines the impact of income that is uncorrelated with human capital, that is, exogenous income. Using a two‐stage framework, we show that the IIE operates through both channels. Moreover, our estimates show that the financial component may have a larger effect than previously estimated, plausibly attributing to 36% of intergenerational income transmission. Indeed, this result holds even when the financial component is defined in an incredibly narrow manner. This suggests that cash payments could promote intergenerational mobility.

Intergenerational transmission of human capital

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find the rate of intergenerational transmission of human capital and comparative schooling attainment between lower and higher income families using the labor force survey in Thailand. Design/methodology/approach Instrumental variable (IV) approach has been used in this paper. The author proposed an alternative instrument for parental education to identify the rate of transmission, which is the parents’ cohorts’ mean schooling in their respective provinces. Findings This paper found that the rate of transmission of human capital from father is higher than that from mother in Thailand. For both, the rate of transmission in Thailand is higher than that in the developed countries. In addition, it is found that children from lower income families are getting lesser education than those from higher income families in Thailand. Research limitations/implications This paper is used as an alternative instrument that could solve the endogeneity problem in the literature of intergenerational transmission of human capital. Practical implications The results of rate of transmission can help to make educational policies in countries like Thailand. It also could help the policymakers to evaluate and redesign the student loan scheme (SLS) in Thailand. Originality/value This study is used as an alternative instrument for parental education to identify the rate of transmission in an IV approach. This paper is the first to identify the intergenerational transmission rate in Thailand. In addition, it evaluates Thai SLS in an intergenerational framework.

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

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.

China’s Population Aging, Human Capital and Economic Growth -Comparison with the United States, Japan, and Korea

This paper focuses on the status quo of China's population aging , that is, the current Chinese society is faced with the characteristics of aging: (1) the age structure of the labor force is aging, and there is a tendency to catch up with Japan and South Korea ; (2) the old-age dependency ratio and the child-rearing ratio rise simultaneously that brings double pressure to society ; (3) China's process of enrichment in the old process is also accelerating ; (4) The rapid rise of aging is slowly coming. At the same time, the related researches on the aging of the population in this field are discussed, and the relationship between population aging and human capital is complicated. The aging of the population affects the human capital transmission on economic growth, positive for economic growth or negative. At the same time, this paper compares the status quo of China's population aging with the three typical aging countries: the United States, Japan, and Korea.

The Mission: Human Capital Transmission, Economic Persistence, and Culture in South America*

This article examines the long-term consequences of a historical human capital intervention. The Jesuit order founded religious missions in 1609 among the Guarani, in modern-day Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Before their expulsion in 1767, missionaries instructed indigenous inhabitants in reading, writing, and various crafts. Using archival records, as well as data at the individual and municipal level, I show that in areas of former Jesuit presence—within the Guarani area—educational attainment was higher and remains so (by 10%–15%) 250 years later. These educational differences have also translated into incomes that are 10% higher today. The identification of the positive effect of the Guarani Jesuit missions emerges after comparing them with abandoned Jesuit missions and neighboring Franciscan Guarani missions. The enduring effects observed are consistent with transmission mechanisms of structural transformation, occupational specialization, and technology adoption in agriculture.