@techreport{a589f4ef563341c79ca4c89be3d0b4a6,
title = "The intergenerational transmission of cognitive skills: an investigation of the causal impact of families on student outcomes",
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{\textquoteright}s choices of STEM fields.",
keywords = "intergenerational mobility, parent-child skill transmission, causality, STEM",
author = "Hanushek, {Eric A.} and Babs Jacobs and Guido Schwerdt and {van der Velden}, Rolf and Stan Vermeulen and Simon Wiederhold",
year = "2021",
month = nov,
day = "15",
doi = "10.26481/umagsb.2021017",
language = "English",
series = "GSBE Research Memoranda",
publisher = "Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics",
number = "017",
address = "Netherlands",
type = "WorkingPaper",
institution = "Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics",
}