Accounting for the Intergenerational Elasticity of Education: Cognitive Ability, Socioeconomic Status, Non-Cognitive Skills and Home Environment

Ariel Kalil, University of Chicago
Salma Khalid, World Bank Group

This paper uses data from the NLSY97 (n= 3,459) to explore the intergenerational transmission of education from parents to their children and the factors that mediate this transmission. Children are initially observed in 1997 at ages 12-14, when measures of their cognitive abilities, family backgrounds, non-cognitive skills, and home environments are collected. Educational attainment is measured in 2007. We show a correlation of .43 between parents’ and offsprings’ years of education. Children’s cognitive skills account for 29% of this association. However, when we expand our model to include family economic background, parents’ and youth’s efficacy and expectations, and measures of the home environment, we explain 60% of this correlation. Family economic background plays a comparatively greater role for less-educated families, whereas expectations figure prominently for higher-educated families. These findings are important insofar as resources, expectations, and home environments may be improved through targeted and effective child and education policy.

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Presented in Session 168: Policy and Child Well-Being