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Educational Attainment and Family Background

Author

Listed:
  • Aakvik Arild

    (University of Bergen,Bergen, Norway)

  • Vaage Kjell

    (University of Bergen,Bergen, Norway)

  • Salvanes Kjell G.

    (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Statistics Norway and IZA,Oslo, Norway)

Abstract

This paper analyses the effect of aspects of family background, such as family income and parental education, on the educational attainment of persons born from 1967 to 1972. Family income is measured at different periods of a child’s life to separate long-term versus short-term effects of family income on educational choices.We find that permanent income matters to a certain degree, and that family income when the child is 0-6 years old is an important explanatory variable for educational attainment later in a child’s life. We find that short-term credit constraints have only a small effect on educational attainment. Long-term factors, such as permanent family income and parental education, are much more important for educational attainment than are short-term credit constraints. Public interventions to alleviate the effects of family background should thus also be targeted at a child’s early years, the shaping period for the cognitive and non-cognitive skills important later in life.

Suggested Citation

  • Aakvik Arild & Vaage Kjell & Salvanes Kjell G., 2005. "Educational Attainment and Family Background," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 6(3), pages 377-394, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:bpj:germec:v:6:y:2005:i:3:p:377-394
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0475.2005.00138.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Abdulmumini Baba Alfa & Abdulmumini Baba Alfa & Mohd Zaini Abd Karim, 2016. "Student Enthusiasm as a Key Determinant of their Performance," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 6(2), pages 237-245.
    2. Pedro Carneiro & Italo López García & Kjell G. Salvanes & Emma Tominey, 2021. "Intergenerational Mobility and the Timing of Parental Income," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(3), pages 757-788.
    3. F. Cugnata & G. Perucca & S. Salini, 2017. "Bayesian networks and the assessment of universities' value added," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(10), pages 1785-1806, July.
    4. Elizabeth M. Caucutt & Lance Lochner, 2020. "Early and Late Human Capital Investments, Borrowing Constraints, and the Family," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(3), pages 1065-1147.
    5. Beraldo, Sergio & Montolio, Daniel & Turati, Gilberto, 2009. "Healthy, educated and wealthy: A primer on the impact of public and private welfare expenditures on economic growth," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 946-956, December.
    6. Lars Lefgren & Matthew J. Lindquist & David Sims, 2012. "Rich Dad, Smart Dad: Decomposing the Intergenerational Transmission of Income," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 120(2), pages 268-303.
    7. Løken, Katrine V., 2010. "Family income and children's education: Using the Norwegian oil boom as a natural experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 118-129, January.
    8. Katja Seidel, 2021. "The transition from School to Post-Secondary Education – What factors affect educational decisions?," Working Paper Series in Economics 398, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    9. Maria Humlum, 2011. "Timing of family income, borrowing constraints, and child achievement," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(3), pages 979-1004, July.
    10. Karin Monstad & Carol Propper & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2011. "Is teenage motherhood contagious? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 11/262, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    11. Martin Ryan & Siobhan McCarthy & Carol Newman, 2007. "Household Characteristics of Higher Education Participants," Working Papers 200702, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    12. Dormidontova, Yulia (Дормидонтова, Юлия) & Kazakova, Yuliya (Казакова, Юлия) & Lyashok, Victor (Ляшок, Виктор) & Grishina, E. (Гришина, Е.) & Tsatsura, Elena (Цацура, Елена), 2016. "Analysis of the Effectiveness of Social Support for Families with Children in Russia: The Example of the Altai Territory and Samara Region [Анализ Эффективности Социальной Поддержки Семей С Детьми ," Working Papers 3134, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    13. Minagawa Junichi & Upmann Thorsten, 2014. "A Single Parent’s Labor Supply: Evaluating Different Child Care Fees within an Intertemporal Framework," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 14(1), pages 177-215, January.
    14. Tormod Bøe & Eric Dearing & Kjell Morten Stormark & Henrik Daae Zachrisson, 2018. "Subjective Economic Status in Adolescence: Determinants and Associations with Mental Health in the Norwegian Youth@Hordaland Study," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 323-336, June.
    15. Raaum Oddbjørn & Bratsberg Bernt & Røed Knut & Österbacka Eva & Eriksson Tor & Jäntti Markus & Naylor Robin A, 2008. "Marital Sorting, Household Labor Supply, and Intergenerational Earnings Mobility across Countries," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(2), pages 1-49, January.
    16. Ritzen, Jo, 2011. "A renaissance for social mobility and its significance for the bridge towards postsecondary education," MERIT Working Papers 2011-057, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    17. repec:bla:germec:v:11:y:2010:i::p:150-168 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Mantello, Peter & Ho, Tung Manh & Nguyen, Minh-Hoang & Vuong, Quan-Hoang, 2021. "My Boss the Computer: A Bayesian analysis of socio-demographic and cross-cultural determinants of attitude toward the Non-Human Resource Management," OSF Preprints 4exjs, Center for Open Science.
    19. Jakobsen, Kristian Thor & Kaarsen, Nicolai & Vasiljeva, Kristine, 2016. "Does reduced cash beneit worsen educational outcomes of refugee children?," MPRA Paper 72008, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Le, Minh Hanh & Afsharian, Mohsen & Ahn, Heinz, 2021. "Inverse Frontier-based Benchmarking for Investigating the Efficiency and Achieving the Targets in the Vietnamese Education System," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    21. Iddrisu, Abdul Malik & Danquah, Michael & Quartey, Peter & Ohemeng, Williams, 2018. "Gender bias in households’ educational expenditures: Does the stage of schooling matter?," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 10, pages 15-23.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D33 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Factor Income Distribution
    • H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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