Professor of Economics, University of Stavanger
CERAS Learning Hall
Title: Father Presence and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment
Authors: Ariel Kalil, Magne Mogstad, Mari Rege and Mark E. Votruba
Abstract: Positive correlations in the socioeconomic outcomes of parents and children have been widely documented, yet the mechanisms behind these correlations remain unclear. This paper investigates the degree to which a father’s presence affects the intergenerational correlation of educational attainment, by exploiting systematic differences in paternal exposure that arise across siblings when a father dies. We find father presence substantially increases father-child intergenerational correlations while decreasing mother-child correlations. The detailed nature of our data allows us to perform a battery of specification checks and to explore the channels through which father presence may affect the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment.