The effects of female education on child education: a prospective analysis

Abstract

This study estimates the effects of women’s education on their offspring using quasi-experimental evidence from six educational reforms that increased the length of compulsory schooling in several European countries. The empirical analysis uses data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and instrumental variable estimation to estimate the effects of female education on fertility and on children’s education. This study provides the first analysis using quasi-experimental variation in education to estimate prospective models of intergenerational effects. These models start with a birth cohort and link information on their fertility and on their children’s outcomes. These models account for the effect of female education on the probability that women have children when estimating the effect of female education. The direct effect of female education on children’s educational attainment, i.e. the effect conditional on the birth of a child, is positive. In addition, higher female education increases fertility. Therefore, the probability that a woman has a child with a high educational attainment is increased when considering the effect of female education on fertility. Studies that estimate retrospective models of intergenerational effects using reforms in the length of compulsory schooling may underestimate the total effect of female on child education.