On the Family Origins of Human Capital Formation : Evidence from Donor Children
(2025) In Review of Economic Studies 92(5). p.3245-3275- Abstract
We introduce a novel strategy to study the intergenerational transmission of human capital skills, net of genetic skill transfers. For this purpose, we use unique Danish data on children conceived through sperm and egg donation in in vitro fertilization treatments to estimate the relationship between child test scores and parental years of schooling. Because the assignment of donors is not selective, these parental schooling 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 father’s education and child test scores (in reading and math) is insignificant and practically zero, whereas the association between mother’s education and... (More)
We introduce a novel strategy to study the intergenerational transmission of human capital skills, net of genetic skill transfers. For this purpose, we use unique Danish data on children conceived through sperm and egg donation in in vitro fertilization treatments to estimate the relationship between child test scores and parental years of schooling. Because the assignment of donors is not selective, these parental schooling 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 father’s education and child test scores (in reading and math) is insignificant and practically zero, whereas the association between mother’s education and child test scores (in reading, not in math) is significant and large, and as large as the association we estimate for mothers of non-donor children.
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- author
- Lundborg, Petter LU ; Plug, Erik and Rasmussen, Astrid Würtz
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-10-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Donor, Human capital, Intergenerational mobility, Nature, Nurture
- in
- Review of Economic Studies
- volume
- 92
- issue
- 5
- pages
- 31 pages
- publisher
- Oxford University Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105015550893
- ISSN
- 0034-6527
- DOI
- 10.1093/restud/rdae101
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Review of Economic Studies Limited.
- id
- e1f828f2-c63d-4ae9-8bb8-b8ef46686cbd
- date added to LUP
- 2025-09-25 14:29:32
- date last changed
- 2025-10-14 12:59:14
@article{e1f828f2-c63d-4ae9-8bb8-b8ef46686cbd,
abstract = {{<p>We introduce a novel strategy to study the intergenerational transmission of human capital skills, net of genetic skill transfers. For this purpose, we use unique Danish data on children conceived through sperm and egg donation in in vitro fertilization treatments to estimate the relationship between child test scores and parental years of schooling. Because the assignment of donors is not selective, these parental schooling 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 father’s education and child test scores (in reading and math) is insignificant and practically zero, whereas the association between mother’s education and child test scores (in reading, not in math) is significant and large, and as large as the association we estimate for mothers of non-donor children.</p>}},
author = {{Lundborg, Petter and Plug, Erik and Rasmussen, Astrid Würtz}},
issn = {{0034-6527}},
keywords = {{Donor; Human capital; Intergenerational mobility; Nature; Nurture}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{10}},
number = {{5}},
pages = {{3245--3275}},
publisher = {{Oxford University Press}},
series = {{Review of Economic Studies}},
title = {{On the Family Origins of Human Capital Formation : Evidence from Donor Children}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdae101}},
doi = {{10.1093/restud/rdae101}},
volume = {{92}},
year = {{2025}},
}