Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/195178 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research No. 1028
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
We estimate the causal effect of maternal education on the mental health of mother's children in late adolescence and adulthood. Theoretical considerations are ambiguous about a causal effect of maternal education on children's mental health. To identify the causal effect of maternal education, we exploit exogenous variation in maternal years of schooling, caused by a compulsory schooling law reform in West Germany. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we find no evidence of a causal protective effect of maternal education on children's mental health. Instead, our empirical results suggest a moderate negative effect of maternal education on the daughters' mental health. We find no effects for the sons. Our investigation of potential mechanisms is consistent with the hypothesis that the negative effect of higher maternal labor supply outweighs the positive effect of an expansion in household resources.
Subjects: 
mental health
education
compulsory schooling reform
intergenerational mobility
JEL: 
I10
I21
I26
J62
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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