Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/248933 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 9388
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
The extensive literature on intergenerational mobility highlights the importance of family linkages but fails to provide credible evidence about the underlying family factors that drive the pervasive correlations. We employ a unique combination of Dutch survey and registry data that links math and language skills across generations. We identify a causal connection between cognitive skills of parents and their children by exploiting within-family between-subject variation in these skills. The data also permit novel IV estimation that isolates variation in parental cognitive skills due to school and peer quality. The between-subject and IV estimates of the key intergenerational persistence parameter are strikingly similar and close at about 0.1. Finally, we show the strong influence of family skill transmission on children’s choices of STEM fields.
Subjects: 
intergenerational mobility
parent-child skill transmission
causality
STEM
JEL: 
I24
I26
J12
J24
J62
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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