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The Intergenerational Transmission of Schooling: Are Mothers Really Less Important than Fathers?

Lundborg, Petter LU ; Rooth, Dan-Olof LU and Amin, Vikesh (2015) In Economics of Education Review 47. p.100-117
Abstract
There is a “puzzle” in the literature on the intergenerational transmission of schooling, where twin studies emphasize the importance of fathers’ schooling, whereas IV-studies often emphasize the importance of mothers. We provide new evidence on this “puzzle” using register based Swedish data on the largest sample of twins used so far in the literature. In contrast to previous twin studies, our results confirm the importance of mothers’ schooling. We also provide the first twin-based evidence of possible role model effects, where our estimates suggest that mother's schooling matters more than father's schooling for daughters schooling. One additional year of mothers’ schooling raises daughter's schooling by a tenth of a year, which is... (More)
There is a “puzzle” in the literature on the intergenerational transmission of schooling, where twin studies emphasize the importance of fathers’ schooling, whereas IV-studies often emphasize the importance of mothers. We provide new evidence on this “puzzle” using register based Swedish data on the largest sample of twins used so far in the literature. In contrast to previous twin studies, our results confirm the importance of mothers’ schooling. We also provide the first twin-based evidence of possible role model effects, where our estimates suggest that mother's schooling matters more than father's schooling for daughters schooling. One additional year of mothers’ schooling raises daughter's schooling by a tenth of a year, which is similar to some of the previous IV-based estimates in the literature. Finally, we bring in new US twin data that for the first time allows a replication of previous twin-based estimates of the intergenerational transmission of schooling in the US. The results show no statistically significant effect of mothers’ and fathers’ schooling on children's schooling. Our results have implications for assessing the efficiency of policies that subsidize the schooling of men and women and are in contrast to most previous findings in the twin literature. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Twins, Intergenerational mobility, Education, Schooling, Twin-fixed effects
in
Economics of Education Review
volume
47
pages
100 - 117
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000359171800007
  • scopus:84930197846
ISSN
1873-7382
DOI
10.1016/j.econedurev.2015.01.008
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
30 April 2015
id
3bf63a3d-7aa7-42fc-b8c6-d0ce2828003c (old id 7357550)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:22:17
date last changed
2022-02-10 01:26:44
@article{3bf63a3d-7aa7-42fc-b8c6-d0ce2828003c,
  abstract     = {{There is a “puzzle” in the literature on the intergenerational transmission of schooling, where twin studies emphasize the importance of fathers’ schooling, whereas IV-studies often emphasize the importance of mothers. We provide new evidence on this “puzzle” using register based Swedish data on the largest sample of twins used so far in the literature. In contrast to previous twin studies, our results confirm the importance of mothers’ schooling. We also provide the first twin-based evidence of possible role model effects, where our estimates suggest that mother's schooling matters more than father's schooling for daughters schooling. One additional year of mothers’ schooling raises daughter's schooling by a tenth of a year, which is similar to some of the previous IV-based estimates in the literature. Finally, we bring in new US twin data that for the first time allows a replication of previous twin-based estimates of the intergenerational transmission of schooling in the US. The results show no statistically significant effect of mothers’ and fathers’ schooling on children's schooling. Our results have implications for assessing the efficiency of policies that subsidize the schooling of men and women and are in contrast to most previous findings in the twin literature.}},
  author       = {{Lundborg, Petter and Rooth, Dan-Olof and Amin, Vikesh}},
  issn         = {{1873-7382}},
  keywords     = {{Twins; Intergenerational mobility; Education; Schooling; Twin-fixed effects}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{100--117}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Economics of Education Review}},
  title        = {{The Intergenerational Transmission of Schooling: Are Mothers Really Less Important than Fathers?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2015.01.008}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.econedurev.2015.01.008}},
  volume       = {{47}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}