TY  - JOUR
AU  - Oreopoulos,Philip
AU  - Page,Marianne E.
AU  - Stevens,Ann Huff
TI  - Does Human Capital Transfer from Parent to Child? The Intergenerational Effects of Compulsory Schooling
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10164
PY  - 2003
Y2  - December 2003
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10164
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10164.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Philip Oreopoulos
Department of Economics
University of Toronto
150 St. George Street
Toronto, ON  M5S 3G7
Canada
E-Mail: philip.oreopoulos@utoronto.ca

Marianne E. Page
Department of Economics
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA  95616-8578
Tel: 530-554-4940
Fax: NA
E-Mail: mepage@ucdavis.edu

Ann Huff Stevens
Department of Economics
One Shields Avenue
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA  95616
Tel: 530/752-3034
E-Mail: annstevens@ucdavis.edu
AB  - The strong correlation between parents' economic status and that of their children has been well-documented, but little is known about the extent to which this is a causal phenomenon. This paper attempts to improve our understanding of the causal processes that contribute to intergenerational immobility by exploiting historical changes in compulsory schooling laws that affected the educational attainment of parents without affecting their innate abilities or endowments. We examine the influence of parental compulsory schooling on grade retention status for children aged 7 to 15 using the 1960, 1970 and 1980 U.S. Censuses. Our estimates indicate that a one-year increase in the education of either parent reduces the probability that a child repeats a grade by between two and seven percentage points. Among 15 to 16 year olds living at home, we also estimate that parental compulsory schooling significantly lowers the likelihood of dropping out. These findings suggest that education policies may be able to reduce part of the intergenerational transmission of inequality.
ER  -