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The Impact of Parental Income and Education on Child Health : Further Evidence for England

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  • Doyle, Orla

    (UCD Geary Institute, University College Dublin)

  • Harmon, Colm

    (UCD Geary Institute University College Dublin and IZA)

  • Walker, Ian

Abstract

This paper investigates the robustness of recent findings on the effect of parental education and income on child health. We are particularly concerned about spurious correlation arising from the potential endogeneity of parental income and education. We adopt an instrumental variables approach and our results suggest that the parental income and education effects are generally larger than are suggested by the correlations observed in the data. Moreover, we find strong support for the causal effect of income effect being large for the poor but small at the average level of income.

Suggested Citation

  • Doyle, Orla & Harmon, Colm & Walker, Ian, 2007. "The Impact of Parental Income and Education on Child Health : Further Evidence for England," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 788, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:wrk:warwec:788
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Khanam, Rasheda & Nghiem, Hong Son & Connelly, Luke B., 2009. "Child health and the income gradient: Evidence from Australia," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 805-817, July.
    2. Rasheda Khanam & Hong Son Nghiem & Luke Brian Connelly, 2014. "What Roles Do Contemporaneous And Cumulative Incomes Play In The Income–Child Health Gradient For Young Children? Evidence From An Australian Panel," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(8), pages 879-893, August.
    3. Wei, Lan & Feeny, David, 2019. "The dynamics of the gradient between child's health and family income: Evidence from Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 182-189.
    4. Daniel Kuehnle, 2013. "The Casual Effect of Family Income on Child Health: A Re-examination Using an Instrumental Variables Approach," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2013n13, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    5. Shu-Hsi Ho & Wen-Shai Hung, 2013. "A study of the Health of Children Born to Foreign- and Native-Born Mothers in Taiwan," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 355-368, September.
    6. Stephen Machin & Olivier Marie & Sunčica Vujić, 2011. "The Crime Reducing Effect of Education," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(552), pages 463-484, May.
    7. Black, Sandra E. & Devereux, Paul J., 2011. "Recent Developments in Intergenerational Mobility," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 16, pages 1487-1541, Elsevier.
    8. Timo Hener & Tanya Wilson, 2018. "Marital Age Gaps and Educational Homogamy – Evidence from a Compulsory Schooling Reform in the UK," ifo Working Paper Series 256, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    9. McInnis, Nicardo, 2023. "Long-term health effects of childhood parental income," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    10. Samia Badji, 2016. "Mother's Education and Increased Child Survival in Madagascar: What Can We Say?," Working Papers 1635, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    11. Janet Currie, 2009. "Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Socioeconomic Status, Poor Health in Childhood, and Human Capital Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 87-122, March.
    12. Kuehnle, Daniel, 2014. "The causal effect of family income on child health in the UK," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 137-150.
    13. Annette Quinto Romani, 2014. "Parental Socioeconomic Background and Child Behaviour," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(1), pages 295-306, March.
    14. Nakamura, R., 2012. "Intergenerational effect of schooling and childhood overweight," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 12/02, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    15. Paul Contoyannis & Martin Dooley, 2010. "The role of child health and economic status in educational, health, and labour market outcomes in young adulthood," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 323-346, February.
    16. Kajal Lahiri & Liu Yang, 2021. "Estimating Endogenous Ordered Response Panel Data Models with an Application to Income Gradient in Child Health," Sankhya B: The Indian Journal of Statistics, Springer;Indian Statistical Institute, vol. 83(2), pages 207-243, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Child health ; intergenerational transmission;

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health

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