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Father's Education and Children's Human Capital: Evidence from the World War II GI Bill

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  • Marianne Page

    (Department of Economics, University of California Davis)

Abstract

Children who grow up in more highly educated families have better labor market outcomes as adults than those who grow up in less educated families, but we do not know whether this is because education bestows parents with skills that make them better parents or because unobservable endowments that contribute to the parents' education levels are shared by their children. This paper attempts to improve our understanding of the causal processes that contribute to intergenerational mobility by exploiting variation in fathers' education induced by the WWII G.I. Bill. Identificatin rests on the timing of the war: the GI Bill had different effects on different cohorts depending on their likelihood of military service and the probability that schooling had been completed before the war began. I find that a one year increase in a father's education reduces the probability that his child is retained in school by about 2-3 percentage points. This implies that parental schooling levels have an affect on children's outcomes that is independent of their innate ability and suggests that public policies aimed at increasing educational attainment may have important intergenerational effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Marianne Page, 2006. "Father's Education and Children's Human Capital: Evidence from the World War II GI Bill," Working Papers 84, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:cda:wpaper:84
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    File URL: https://repec.dss.ucdavis.edu/files/aCgb8ezqwf43oFixp1ToNDRA/06-33.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Marc Piopiunik, 2011. "Microeconometric Analyses of Education Production in Germany," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 40.
    2. Björklund, Anders & Salvanes, Kjell G., 2011. "Education and Family Background: Mechanisms and Policies," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 3, pages 201-247, Elsevier.
    3. Daniel K. Fetter, 2013. "How Do Mortgage Subsidies Affect Home Ownership? Evidence from the Mid-century GI Bills," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 111-147, May.
    4. Marc Piopiunik, 2014. "Intergenerational Transmission of Education and Mediating Channels: Evidence from a Compulsory Schooling Reform in Germany," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 116(3), pages 878-907, July.
    5. Kimbrough, Gray, 2013. "The Educational Legacy of the Greatest Generation: Paternal Military Service and Baby Boomer Educational Progress," UNCG Economics Working Papers 13-16, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics, revised 03 May 2016.
    6. Jongkwan Lee, 2023. "The impact of a local human capital shock: evidence from World War II veterans," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1765-1798, July.

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