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Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital: Is It a One-Way Street?

Lundborg, Petter LU and Majlesi, Kaveh LU (2015) In Working Paper / Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University
Abstract
Studies on the intergenerational transmission of human capital usually assume a one-way spillover from parents to children. But what if children also affect their parents’ human capital? Using exogenous variation in education, arising from a Swedish compulsory schooling reform in the 1950s and 1960s, we address this question by studying the causal effect of children’s schooling on their parents’ longevity. We first replicate previous findings of a positive and significant cross-sectional relationship between children’s education and their parents’ longevity. Our causal estimates tell a different story; children’s schooling has no significant effect on parents’ survival. These results hold when we examine separate causes of death and when... (More)
Studies on the intergenerational transmission of human capital usually assume a one-way spillover from parents to children. But what if children also affect their parents’ human capital? Using exogenous variation in education, arising from a Swedish compulsory schooling reform in the 1950s and 1960s, we address this question by studying the causal effect of children’s schooling on their parents’ longevity. We first replicate previous findings of a positive and significant cross-sectional relationship between children’s education and their parents’ longevity. Our causal estimates tell a different story; children’s schooling has no significant effect on parents’ survival. These results hold when we examine separate causes of death and when we restrict the sample to low-income and low-educated parents. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Education, Compulsory schooling, Longevity, Human capital, Intergenerational transmission
in
Working Paper / Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University
issue
22
pages
41 pages
publisher
Department of Economics, Lund University
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
64511b64-1767-4594-b9f0-3f00a0323cdc (old id 7761088)
alternative location
http://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2015_022.htm
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 12:10:26
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:09:24
@misc{64511b64-1767-4594-b9f0-3f00a0323cdc,
  abstract     = {{Studies on the intergenerational transmission of human capital usually assume a one-way spillover from parents to children. But what if children also affect their parents’ human capital? Using exogenous variation in education, arising from a Swedish compulsory schooling reform in the 1950s and 1960s, we address this question by studying the causal effect of children’s schooling on their parents’ longevity. We first replicate previous findings of a positive and significant cross-sectional relationship between children’s education and their parents’ longevity. Our causal estimates tell a different story; children’s schooling has no significant effect on parents’ survival. These results hold when we examine separate causes of death and when we restrict the sample to low-income and low-educated parents.}},
  author       = {{Lundborg, Petter and Majlesi, Kaveh}},
  keywords     = {{Education; Compulsory schooling; Longevity; Human capital; Intergenerational transmission}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{22}},
  publisher    = {{Department of Economics, Lund University}},
  series       = {{Working Paper / Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University}},
  title        = {{Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital: Is It a One-Way Street?}},
  url          = {{http://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2015_022.htm}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}