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Parental Assortative Mating and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital

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  • Paul Bingley
  • Lorenzo Cappellari

    (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
    Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)

  • Konstantinos Tatsiramos

Abstract

We study the contribution of parental similarity in schooling levels to the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. We develop an empirical model for educational correlations within the family in which parental sorting can translate into intergenerational transmission, or transmission can originate from each parent independently. Estimating the model using educational attainment from Danish population-based administrative data for over 400,000 families, we find that about 75 percent of the intergenerational correlation in education is driven by the joint contribution of the parents. We also document a sizeable secular decline of parental assortative mating in education, with a corresponding fall in joint intergenerational transmission from both parents; a fall compensated by an increase in parent-specific intergenerational transmission, leaving total intergenerational persistence unchanged. The mechanisms of intergenerational transmission have changed, with an increased importance of one-to-one parent-child relationships.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Bingley & Lorenzo Cappellari & Konstantinos Tatsiramos, 2021. "Parental Assortative Mating and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def101, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    • Handle: RePEc:ctc:serie1:def101
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    6. Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Roff, Jennifer Louise, 2021. "Commitments and the Marital Match: The Effect of Alimony Reform on Assortative Matching," IZA Discussion Papers 14877, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Tilbe Atav & Cornelius A. Rietveld & Hans van Kippersluis, 2023. "The impact of family background on educational attainment in Dutch birth cohorts 1966-1995," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 23-066/V, Tinbergen Institute.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Assortative mating; intergenerational transmission; human capital; inequality.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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