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

Lundborg, Petter LU ; Plug, Erik and Rasmussen, Astrid Würtz (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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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
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
2025-09-25 16:34:48
@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}},
}