IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp19048.html

Lone Motherhood, Childhood Resources, and the Dynamics of Skill Formation

Author

Listed:
  • Hansen, Jörgen

    (Concordia University)

  • Shaha, Bidhan

    (Concordia University)

Abstract

Children who experience lone motherhood differ from children who remain with both biological parents before family transitions occur, complicating observed family structure gaps. Using the Children of the NLSY79, we estimate a dynamic model of family arrangements, financial resources, parental investment, and child skills with persistent family heterogeneity. A transition into lone motherhood at age 7 generates a persistent resource decline and gradually widening skill differences, reducing schooling and adult wages. A Shapley decomposition attributes about 94 percent of the adult effects to the resource-to-skill pathway. Complementary counterfactuals show that timing and persistence shape the developmental consequences of family change.

Suggested Citation

  • Hansen, Jörgen & Shaha, Bidhan, 2026. "Lone Motherhood, Childhood Resources, and the Dynamics of Skill Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 19048, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp19048
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp19048.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C38 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Classification Methdos; Cluster Analysis; Principal Components; Factor Analysis
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    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:iza:izadps:dp19048. 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: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.html .

    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.