Parental Separation and Children's Educational Attainment: A Siblings Analysis on Swedish Register Data
Abstract
This article analyzes whether the commonly found negative relationship between parental separation in childhood and educational outcomes is causal or mainly due to selection. We use data on about 100,000 Swedish full biological siblings, born in 1948-63, and perform cross-section and sibling-difference estimations. Outcomes are measured as educational attainment in 1996. Our cross-section analysis show the expected negative and significant relationship, while the relationship is not significant, though precisely estimated, in the sibling-difference analysis. This finding was robust to the sensitivity tests performed and is consistent with selection, rather than causation, being the explanation for the negative relationship. JEL Classification: Keywords:Download Info
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Paper provided by Swedish Institute for Social Research in its series Working Paper Series with number 4/2004.Length: 30 pages
Date of creation: 26 Apr 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2004_004
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Postal: SOFI, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: (0)8 - 16 32 48
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Web page: http://www.sofi.su.se/
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Related research
Keywords: divorce; child welfare; siblings estimators;Other versions of this item:
- Anders Bj�Rklund & Marianne Sundstr�M, 2006. "Parental Separation and Children's Educational Attainment: A Siblings Analysis on Swedish Register Data," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 73(292), pages 605-624, November.
- I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
- I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General
- J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2004-06-22 (All new papers)
- NEP-EDU-2004-06-21 (Education)
- NEP-LAB-2004-06-22 (Labour Economics)
- NEP-LTV-2004-06-21 (Unemployment, Inequality & Poverty)
- NEP-URE-2004-06-22 (Urban & Real Estate Economics)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Donna K. Ginther & Robert A. Pollak, 2000.
"Does family structure affect children's educational outcomes?,"
Working Paper
2000-13, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
- Donna K. Ginther & Robert A. Pollak, 2003. "Does Family Structure Affect Children's Educational Outcomes?," NBER Working Papers 9628, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- John F. Ermisch & Marco Francesconi, 2001. "Family structure and children's achievements," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 249-270.
- Anne Case & I-Fen Lin & Sara McLanahan, 2000. "Educational Attainment in Blended Families," NBER Working Papers 7874, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Winkelmann, Rainer, 2003.
"Parental Separation and Well-Being of Youths,"
IZA Discussion Papers
894, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Rainer Winkelmann, 2003. "Parental Separation and Well-Being of Youths," Working Papers 0312, University of Zurich, Socioeconomic Institute.
- Philip K. Robins & David H. Greenberg & Paul Fronstin, 2001. "Parental disruption and the labour market performance of children when they reach adulthood," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 137-172.
- Ermisch, John & Francesconi, Marco, 2001. "Family Matters: Impacts of Family Background on Educational Attainments," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(270), pages 137-56, May.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Ian Walker & Yu Zhu, 2008. "Child Support and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Studies in Economics 0811, Department of Economics, University of Kent.
- Björklund, Anders & Lindahl, Lena & Lindquist, Matthew J., 2008. "What More Than Parental Income? An Exploration of What Swedish Siblings Get from Their Parents," IZA Discussion Papers 3735, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Nekby, Lena & Vilhelmsson, Roger & Özcan, Gülay, 2007.
"Do Domestic Educations Even Out the Playing Field? Ethnic Labor Market Gaps in Sweden,"
Research Papers in Economics
2007:6, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
- Nekby, Lena & Özcan, Gülay, 2007. "Do Domestic Educations Even Out the Playing Field? Ethnic Labor Market Gaps in Sweden," SULCIS Working Papers 2007:3, Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS.
- Frauke H. Peter & C. Katharina Spiess, 2011. "The Bigger the Children, the Bigger the Worries: Are Preschoolers and Adolescents Affected Differently by Family Instability with Regard to Non-cognitive Skills?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 367, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
- Björklund, Anders, 2006. "Family Background and Outcomes Later in Life: A (Partial and Personal) Survey of Recent Research Using Swedish Register Data," Working Paper Series 4/2007, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
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