The effects of female education on child education: a prospective analysis

This study estimates the effects of women's education on their offspring using quasi-experimental evidence from six educational reforms that increased the length of compulsory schooling in several European countries. The empirical analysis uses data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European societies 2024-05, Vol.26 (3), p.855-879
Main Author: Grätz, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Children
Children & youth
Compulsory education
Education
Education reform
Educational attainment
Females
Fertility
Higher education
intergenerational mobility
Mothers
Probability
Quasi-experiment
Quasi-experimental methods
Retirement
Women
Women's education
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Summary:This study estimates the effects of women's education on their offspring using quasi-experimental evidence from six educational reforms that increased the length of compulsory schooling in several European countries. The empirical analysis uses data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and instrumental variable estimation to estimate the effects of female education on fertility and on children's education. This study provides the first analysis using quasi-experimental variation in education to estimate prospective models of intergenerational effects. These models start with a birth cohort and link information on their fertility and on their children's outcomes. These models account for the effect of female education on the probability that women have children when estimating the effect of female education. The direct effect of female education on children's educational attainment, i.e. the effect conditional on the birth of a child, is positive. In addition, higher female education increases fertility. Therefore, the probability that a woman has a child with a high educational attainment is increased when considering the effect of female education on fertility. Studies that estimate retrospective models of intergenerational effects using reforms in the length of compulsory schooling may underestimate the total effect of female on child education.
ISSN:1461-6696
1469-8307
1469-8307
DOI:10.1080/14616696.2023.2275591