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The Effect of Family Income during Childhood on Later-life Attainment: Evidence from Germany

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  • Stephen P. Jenkins
  • Christian Schluter

Abstract

We examine the impact of family income during childhood on the type of secondary school that German children attend, a good indicator of their lifetime socioeconomic attainment. By contrast with several US child outcome studies, we find that late-childhood income is a more important determinant of outcomes than early-childhood income, and income effects are not greater for poor households compared to rich households, other things equal. The income effects are small for native-born German children and non-existent for children from guestworker households. Income effects are also small relative to the impact of differences in parental educational qualifications or institutional factors related to the federal state of residence.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen P. Jenkins & Christian Schluter, 2002. "The Effect of Family Income during Childhood on Later-life Attainment: Evidence from Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 317, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp317
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    Cited by:

    1. Arnaud Chevalier & Colm Harmon & Vincent O’ Sullivan & Ian Walker, 2013. "The impact of parental income and education on the schooling of their children," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-22, December.
    2. Wolter, Stefan C., 2003. "Sibling Rivalry: A Six Country Comparison," IZA Discussion Papers 734, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Lorenzo Cappellari, 2004. "High school types, academic performance and early labour market outcomes," CHILD Working Papers wp03_04, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY.
    4. Landvoigt, Tim & Muehler, Grit & Pfeiffer, Friedhelm, 2007. "Duration and Intensity of Kindergarten Attendance and Secondary School Track Choice," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-051, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. 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.
    6. Rune V. Lesner, 2016. "The Long-Term Effect of Childhood Poverty," Economics Working Papers 2016-08, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    7. Winkelmann, Rainer, 2006. "Parental separation and well-being of youths: Evidence from Germany," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 197-208, April.
    8. Tamm, Marcus, 2008. "Does money buy higher schooling?: Evidence from secondary school track choice in Germany," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 536-545, October.
    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. Mahler, Philippe & Winkelmann, Rainer, 2004. "Single Motherhood and (Un)Equal Educational Opportunities: Evidence for Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 1391, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Marco Francesconi & Stephen Jenkins & Thomas Siedler, 2010. "Childhood family structure and schooling outcomes: evidence for Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(3), pages 1073-1103, June.
    12. Alberto Tumino, 2013. "The effect of local labour market conditions on educational choices: a cross country comparison," ImPRovE Working Papers 13/06, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    13. W.H.J. Hassink & H. Kiiver, 2007. "Age-dependent Effects of Socio-economic Background on Educational Attainment - Evidence from Germany," Working Papers 07-26, Utrecht School of Economics.
    14. Arnaud Chevalier & Colm Harmon & Vincent O'Sullivan & Ian Walker, 2011. "The Impact of Parental Earnings and Education on the Schooling of Children," Working Papers 201112, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    15. Alejandra Cattaneo & Sandra Hanslin & Rainer Winkelmann, 2007. "The Apple Falls Increasingly Far: Parent-Child Correlation in Schooling and the Growth of Post-Secondary Education in Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 143(II), pages 133-153, June.
    16. Paola Giuliano, 2008. "Culture and the Family: An Application to Educational Choices in Italy," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 98(4), pages 3-38, July-Augu.
    17. Philippe Mahler & Rainer Winkelmann, 2004. "Secondary School Track Selection of Single-Parent Children � Evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel," SOI - Working Papers 0415, Socioeconomic Institute - University of Zurich, revised Oct 2005.
    18. Aydogan Ulker, 2008. "Mental Health And Life Satisfaction Of Young Australians: The Role Of Family Background," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 199-218, June.
    19. Wolter, Stefan C. & Coradi Vellacott, Maja, 2002. "Sibling Rivalry: A Look at Switzerland with PISA Data," IZA Discussion Papers 594, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Rune V. Lesner, 2018. "The long-term effect of childhood poverty," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(3), pages 969-1004, July.
    21. Thorsten Schneider, 2004. "Der Einfluss des Einkommens der Eltern auf die Schulwahl," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 446, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    22. John Ermisch & Marco Francesconi & Thomas Siedler, 2004. "Intergenerational Economic Mobility and Assortative Mating," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 448, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    23. Florence Neymotin, 2014. "How Parental Involvement Affects Childhood Behavioral Outcomes," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 433-451, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    child poverty; educational achievement; schooling; family background;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

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