The Causal Effect of Parents' Education on Children's Earnings

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Lee, Sang Yoon (Tim); Roys, Nicolas; Seshadri, Ananth
• 署名单位: University of London; Queen Mary University London; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; University of London; Royal Holloway University London; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison
• 刊物名称: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0020-6598
• DOI: 10.1111/iere.70105
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: life-cycle; adoption; mothers; nurture; models; sample; BIAS

摘要

We develop and estimate a model of endogenous schooling and earnings to isolate the causal effect of parents' education on children's outcomes. Identification uses earnings differences among children with equal schooling whose parents have different schooling. Health and Retirement Study data indicate that the observed intergenerational schooling correlation is largely driven by correlated unobserved preferences for schooling. This is partly offset by a slightly negative structural relationship between parents' and children's schooling choices. Nevertheless, an exogenous one-year increase in parents' schooling raises children's lifetime earnings by 2 % on average.