Does Parental Quality Matter? Evidence on the Transmission of Human Capital Using Variation in Parental Influence from Death, Divorce, and Family Size

NBER Working Paper No. 25495

Issued in January 2019

NBER Program(s):Children, Economics of Education, Labor Studies



This paper examines the transmission of human capital from parents to children using variation in parental influence due to parental death, divorce, and the increasing specialization of parental roles in larger families. All three sources of variation yield strikingly similar patterns which show that the strong parent-child correlation in human capital is largely causal. In each case, the parent-child correlation in education is stronger with the parent that spends more time with the child, and weaker with the parent that spends relatively less time parenting. These findings help us understand why educated parents spend more time with their children.

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w25495

Published: Eric D. Gould & Avi Simhon & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2020. "Does Parental Quality Matter? Evidence on the Transmission of Human Capital Using Variation in Parental Influence from Death, Divorce, and Family Size," Journal of Labor Economics, vol 38(2), pages 569-610.