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It's not all about parents' education, it also matters what they do: Parents' employment and children's school success in Germany

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  • Boll, Christina
  • Hoffmann, Malte

Abstract

In this paper, we use GSOEP data to explore whether parents' employment has an extra effect on the school achievement of their children, beyond the well-established effects of education, income and demography. First, we test whether the source of income or parents' unemployment determine children's school achievements. Second, we analyze the effect of job prestige and factors of societal engagement on children's performance. Our results indicate no clear income associations but the existence of an employment channel as well as a social channel from mothers to their kids. A negative role model for girls is found for maternal housework. Moreover, the fathers' job prestige is substantial.

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  • Boll, Christina & Hoffmann, Malte, 2015. "It's not all about parents' education, it also matters what they do: Parents' employment and children's school success in Germany," HWWI Research Papers 162, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:hwwirp:162
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    Cited by:

    1. Emanuela Ghignoni, 2015. "Family background and university dropouts during the crisis: the case of Italy," Working Papers in Public Economics 169, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Economics and Law.
    2. Boockmann, Bernhard & Nielen, Sebastian, 2016. "Mentoring disadvantaged youths during school-to-work transition: evidence from Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145770, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

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    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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