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Subjective Parental Beliefs. Their Measurement and Role

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  • Orazio Attanasio
  • Flávio Cunha
  • Pamela Jervis

Abstract

We study the importance of maternal subjective beliefs about the technology of skill formation in determining parental investments on child development. We describe our framework in three steps. First, we discuss the construction of the survey instrument we used to elicit maternal subjective beliefs. Second, we show how to convert the answers to the survey instrument into estimates of maternal subjective beliefs. Finally, we correlate maternal subjective beliefs with maternal investments of child development. We apply our framework to a unique dataset collected as part of an 18-month-long parenting stimulation program in Colombia, whose target population were low-income households with children aged 12 to 24 months at baseline and lasted 18 months. In this program, home visitors paid weekly visits to randomly chosen households to improve mother-child interactions and other maternal behaviors that foster the development of children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills. We show that the vast majority of mothers believe that the technology of skill formation follows a Cobb-Douglas parameterization, but there is significant heterogeneity in coefficients of investments across mothers. In particular, mothers hold low subjective expectations, which means that mothers underestimate the returns to their investments. We also find that maternal subjective beliefs predict investments, but that the program did not affect maternal subjective beliefs.

Suggested Citation

  • Orazio Attanasio & Flávio Cunha & Pamela Jervis, 2019. "Subjective Parental Beliefs. Their Measurement and Role," NBER Working Papers 26516, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26516
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    1. Attanasio, Orazio & Cattan, Sarah & Fitzsimons, Emla & Meghir, Costas & Rubio-Codina, Marta, 2015. "Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Control Trial in Colombia," IZA Discussion Papers 8856, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Orazio Attanasio & Sarah Cattan & Emla Fitzsimons & Costas Meghir & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2020. "Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Colombia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(1), pages 48-85, January.
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    5. Heckman, James J. & Moon, Seong Hyeok & Pinto, Rodrigo & Savelyev, Peter A. & Yavitz, Adam, 2010. "The rate of return to the HighScope Perry Preschool Program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 114-128, February.
    6. Teodora Boneva & Christopher Rauh, 2018. "Parental Beliefs about Returns to Educational Investments—The Later the Better?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 16(6), pages 1669-1711.
    7. Marta Rubio-Codina & Orazio Attanasio & Costas Meghir & Natalia Varela & Sally Grantham-McGregor, 2015. "The Socioeconomic Gradient of Child Development: Cross-Sectional Evidence from Children 6–42 Months in Bogota," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 464-483.
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    9. Flávio Cunha & Irma Elo & Jennifer Culhane, 2013. "Eliciting Maternal Expectations about the Technology of Cognitive Skill Formation," NBER Working Papers 19144, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Gizem Koşar & Cormac O'Dea, 2022. "Expectations Data in Structural Microeconomic Models," NBER Working Papers 30094, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Jorge Luis García & James J. Heckman, 2022. "Parenting Promotes Social Mobility Within and Across Generations," NBER Working Papers 30610, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Bhalotra, Sonia & Delavande, Adeline & Font-Gilabert, Paulino & Maselko, Joanna, 2020. "Maternal investments in children: the role of expected effort and returns," ISER Working Paper Series 2020-03, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    4. Michele Giannola, 2022. "Parental investments and intra-household inequality in child human capital: evidence from a survey experiment," IFS Working Papers W22/54, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    5. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Tiffany Ho & Nicolás Salamanca, 2021. "Parental Responses to Children’s Achievement Test Results," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2021n17, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    6. Lekfuangfu, Warn N., 2022. "Mortality risk, perception, and human capital investments: The legacy of landmines in Cambodia," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. Bhalotra, Sonia & Delavande, Adeline & Font-Gilabert, Paulino & Maselko, Joanna, 2022. "Maternal Investments in Children : The Role of Expected Effort and Returns," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1423, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    8. Jere R. Behrman & Flávio Cunha & Esteban Puentes & Fan Wang, 2018. "You Are What Your Parents Expect: Height and Local Reference Points," PIER Working Paper Archive 18-007, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 01 Apr 2022.
    9. John List & Julie Pernaudet & Dana Suskind, 2021. "It All Starts with Beliefs: Addressing the Roots of Educational Inequities by Changing Parental Beliefs," Framed Field Experiments 00740, The Field Experiments Website.
    10. Avner Seror, 2022. "The Priced Survey Methodology," Working Papers hal-03852682, HAL.
    11. Rui Li & Nathan Rose & Yi Ming Zheng & Yunwei Chen & Sean Sylvia & Henry Wilson-Smith & Alexis Medina & Sarah-Eve Dill & Scott Rozelle, 2021. "Early Childhood Reading in Rural China and Obstacles to Caregiver Investment in Young Children: A Mixed-Methods Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-27, February.
    12. Chang, Simon & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Salamanca, Nicolás, 2022. "Parents’ responses to teacher qualifications," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 419-446.
    13. Bai, Yu & Emmers, Dorien & Li, Ying & Tang, Lei, 2022. "Parental locus of control and early childhood development: Evidence on parent and grandparent caregivers in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    14. Bhalotra, Sonia & Delavande, Adeline & Font-Gilabert, Paulino & Maselko, Joanna, 2022. "Maternal Investments in Children : The Role of Expected Effort and Returns," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 637, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    15. Flavio Cunha & Marsha Gerdes & Qinyou Hu & Snejana Nihtianova, 2023. "Language Environment and Maternal Expectations: An Evaluation of the LENA Start Program," NBER Working Papers 30837, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Cunha, Flávio & Elo, Irma & Culhane, Jennifer, 2022. "Maternal subjective expectations about the technology of skill formation predict investments in children one year later," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 231(1), pages 3-32.
    17. Lei Wang & Conghong Yang & Dingjing Jiang & Siqi Zhang & Qi Jiang & Scott Rozelle, 2022. "Impact of Parental Beliefs on Child Developmental Outcomes: A Quasi-Experiment in Rural China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-16, June.
    18. Flavio Cunha & Irma Elo & Jennifer Culhane, 2021. "Maternal Subjective Expectations about the Technology of Skill Formation Predict Investments in Children One Year Later," Working Papers 2021-018, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    19. Hirani, Jonas Cuzulan & Wüst, Miriam, 2022. "Nurses and infant vaccination coverage," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 402-428.
    20. Zhong, Jingdong & Gao, Jingjing & Wang, Tianyi & He, Yang & Liu, Chengfang & Luo, Renfu, 2020. "Interrelationships of parental belief, parental investments, and child development: A cross-sectional study in rural China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    21. Annalisa Guarini & Alessandra Sansavini & Chiara Suttora & Stefania Bortolotti & Margherita Fort & Daniela Iorio & Chiara Monfardini & Maria Bigoni, 2022. "Mindful Parenting Intervention MinUTo App for Parents of Preschool Children: Study Protocol of a Randomised Controlled Trial," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-16, June.
    22. Alison Andrew & Abi Adams-Prassl, 2022. "Revealed beliefs and the marriage market return to education," IFS Working Papers W22/48, Institute for Fiscal Studies.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

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