IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/ecdecc/doi10.1086-702994.html

Maternal Education, Parental Investment, and Noncognitive Characteristics in Rural China

Author

Listed:
  • Jessica Leight
  • Elaine M. Liu

Abstract

The importance of noncognitive skills in determining long-term human capital and labor market outcomes is widely acknowledged, but relatively little is known about how educational investments by parents may respond to children’s noncognitive characteristics. This paper evaluates the parental response to noncognitive variation across siblings in rural Gansu Province, China, employing a household fixed effects specification; the noncognitive measures of interest are defined as the inverse of both externalizing challenges (behavioral problems and aggression) and internalizing challenges (anxiety and withdrawal). The results suggest that there is significant heterogeneity with respect to maternal education. More-educated mothers appear to compensate for differences between their children, investing more in a child who exhibits greater noncognitive deficits, while less-educated mothers reinforce these differences. Most important, we present evidence that these compensatory investments are associated with the narrowing of noncognitive deficits over time for children of more-educated mothers, while there is no comparable pattern in households with less-educated mothers.

Suggested Citation

  • Jessica Leight & Elaine M. Liu, 2020. "Maternal Education, Parental Investment, and Noncognitive Characteristics in Rural China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(1), pages 213-251.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/702994
    DOI: 10.1086/702994
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/702994
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/702994
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/702994?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Hua & Zhang, Kaixuan & Wang, Lin & Chen, Jiwei, 2025. "Educational burden reduction, educational inequality, and enrollment pressure: Evidence from China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    2. Xu, Hui & Zhang, Zheyuan & Zhao, Zhong, 2023. "Parental socioeconomic status and children’s cognitive ability in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. Ding, Xiaozhou & Song, Yaxiang, 2025. "Maternal education and early childhood outcomes in China," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    4. Cui, Ying & Liu, Hong & Zhao, Liqiu, 2019. "Mother's education and child development: Evidence from the compulsory school reform in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 669-692.
    5. David N. Figlio & Krzysztof Karbownik & Umut Özek, 2023. "Sibling Spillovers May Enhance the Efficacy of Targeted School Policies," NBER Working Papers 31406, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Shen, Wensong, 2025. "The reciprocal relations between externalizing problems and educational achievement and their long-term implications for educational attainment: Evidence from a 15-year study in China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    7. Chen, Jiwei & Zhang, Zongli, 2024. "Family poverty and adolescents’ cognitive and noncognitive outcomes: Evidence from China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/702994. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/EDCC .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.