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The role of parental investments for cognitive and noncognitive skill formation: Evidence for the first 11 years of life

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  • Coneus, Katja
  • Laucht, Manfred
  • Reuß, Karsten

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of parental investments on the development of cognitive, mental and emotional skills during childhood using data from a longitudinal study, the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk, starting at birth. Our work offers three important innovations. First, we use reliable measures of the child's cognitive, mental and emotional skills as well as accurate measures of parental investment. Second, we estimate latent factor models to account for unobserved characteristics of children. Third, we examine the skill development for girls and boys separately, as well as for children who were born with either organic or psychosocial risk. We find a decreasing impact of parental investments on cognitive and mental skills, while emotional skills seem to be unaffected by parental investment throughout childhood. Thus, initial inequality persists during childhood. Since families are the main sources of education during the first years of life, our results have important implications for the quality of the parent-child relationship.

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Paper provided by ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research in its series ZEW Discussion Papers with number 10-028.

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Date of creation: 2010
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Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:10028
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Keywords: cognitive skills; noncognitive skills; critical and sensitive periods; self-productivity; inequality; organic risk; psychosocial risk;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
  • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
  • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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  1. Husain, Muna & Millimet, Daniel L., 2009. "The mythical 'boy crisis'?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 38-48, February.
  2. James Heckman & Pedro Carneiro & Flavio Cunha, 2004. "The Technology of Skill Formation," 2004 Meeting Papers 681, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  3. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman, 2009. "The Economics and Psychology of Inequality and Human Development," NBER Working Papers 14695, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Blomeyer, Dorothea & Coneus, Katja & Laucht, Manfred & Pfeiffer, Friedhelm, 2008. "Initial Risk Matrix, Home Resources, Ability Development and Children's Achievement," IZA Discussion Papers 3692, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  5. Cunha, Flavio & Heckman, James J. & Lochner, Lance John & Masterov, Dimitriy V., 2005. "Interpreting the Evidence on Life Cycle Skill Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 1675, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  6. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman, 2009. "The Economics & Psychology of Inequality and Human Development," Working Papers 200905, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
  7. James Heckman & Pedro Carneiro, 2003. "Human Capital Policy," NBER Working Papers 9495, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  8. Sandra E. Black & Paul Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2007. "From the Cradle to the Labor Market? The Effect of Birth Weight on Adult Outcomes," Working Papers 200718, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
  9. Douglas Almond & Lena Edlund & Mårten Palme, 2007. "Chernobyl's Subclinical Legacy: Prenatal Exposure to Radioactive Fallout and School Outcomes in Sweden," NBER Working Papers 13347, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  10. James J. Heckman, 2008. "Schools, Skills, and Synapses," Working Papers 200833, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
  11. Phil Oreopoulos & Mark Stabile & Randy Walld & Leslie Roos, 2006. "Short, Medium, and Long Term Consequences of Poor Infant Health: An Analysis using Siblings and Twins," NBER Working Papers 11998, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  12. Blomeyer, Dorothea & Coneus, Katja & Laucht, Manfred & Pfeiffer, Friedhelm, 2008. "Self-Productivity and Complementarities in Human Development: Evidence from the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk," IZA Discussion Papers 3734, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  13. Susanne Schennach & James Heckman & Flavio Cunha, 2007. "Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation," 2007 Meeting Papers 973, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  14. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman, 2008. "Formulating, Identifying and Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(4).
  15. Doyle, Orla & Harmon, Colm P. & Heckman, James J. & Tremblay, Richard E., 2009. "Investing in early human development: Timing and economic efficiency," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 1-6, March.
  16. Paul J. Devereux & Sandra E. Black & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2007. "From the cradle to the labor market? The effect of birth weight on adult outcomes," Working Papers 10197/317, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
  17. Pedro Carneiro & Claire Crawford & Alissa Goodman, 2007. "The Impact of Early Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills on Later Outcomes," CEE Discussion Papers 0092, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
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Cited by:

  1. Dorothea Blomeyer & Katja Coneus & Manfred Laucht & Friedhelm Pfeiffer, 2012. "Early Life Adversity and Children's Competence Development: Evidence from the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk," Working Papers 2012-020, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
  2. Berggren, Niclas & Nilsson, Therese, 2014. "Globalization and the Transmission of Social Values: The Case of Tolerance," Working Paper Series 1007, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
  3. Dercon, Stefan & Sánchez, Alan, 2013. "Height in mid childhood and psychosocial competencies in late childhood: Evidence from four developing countries," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 426-432.
  4. Sandner, Malte, 2013. "Effects of Early Childhood Intervention on Child Development and Early Skill Formation. Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-518, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
  5. Sandner, Malte, 2012. "The effects of early childhood intervention on child development and early skill formation. Evidence from a randomized experiment," Annual Conference 2012 (Goettingen): New Approaches and Challenges for the Labor Market of the 21st Century 62036, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
  6. Malte Sandner & Tanja Jungmann, 2016. "How Much Can We Trust Maternal Ratings of Early Child Development in Disadvantaged Samples?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 817, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
  7. Weinschenk, Philipp, 2012. "Skill formation under incomplete information," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 209-217.
  8. Belfield, Clive R. & Kelly, Inas Rashad, 2013. "Early education and health outcomes of a 2001 U.S. Birth Cohort," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 310-325.
  9. Pfeiffer, Friedhelm & Reuss, Karsten, 2013. "Improving Educational Investments: A Welfare Analysis for Europe," Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 13(3), pages 77-94.
  10. Pfeiffer, Friedhelm & Reuß, Karsten, 2013. "Education and lifetime income during demographic transition," ZEW Discussion Papers 13-021, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
  11. Cuesta, Maite Blázquez & Budría, Santiago, 2015. "Income deprivation and mental well-being: The role of non-cognitive skills," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 16-28.

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