IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jpolec/v101y1993i4p710-40.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of Family Background on Earnings and Returns to Schooling: Evidence from Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Lam, David
  • Schoeni, Robert F

Abstract

The authors investigate whether omitted family background variables are responsible for high returns to schooling estimated in Brazil. Returns to schooling fall by about one-third when parental schooling is added to wage equations. Surprisingly, the schooling of fathers-in-law has larger effects on wages than the schooling of fathers. On the basis of a model of assortative mating, the authors interpret this as evidence that parental characteristics represent unobservable worker attributes rather than nepotism in the labor market. They conclude that the 'family background bias' in returns to schooling is modest and need not imply returns to family connections. Copyright 1993 by University of Chicago Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Lam, David & Schoeni, Robert F, 1993. "Effects of Family Background on Earnings and Returns to Schooling: Evidence from Brazil," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(4), pages 710-740, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:v:101:y:1993:i:4:p:710-40
    DOI: 10.1086/261894
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/261894
    File Function: full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. See http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JPE for details.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/261894?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 search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean

    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:jpolec:v:101:y:1993:i:4:p:710-40. 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/JPE .

    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.