Working paper

The Intergenerational Transmission of Education: Evidence from Taiwanese Adoptions

James K. Hammitt, Jin-Tan Liu, and Meng-Wen Tsou

Abstract

This paper examines the causal effect of parental schooling on children’s schooling using a large sample of adoptees from Taiwan. Using birth-parents’ education to help control for selective placement of children with adoptive parents, we find that adoptees raised with more highly educated parents have higher educational attainment, measured by years of schooling and probability of university graduation. We also find evidence that adoptive father’s schooling is more important for sons’ and adoptive mother’s schooling is more important for daughters’ educational attainment. These results support the notion that family environment (nurture) is important in determining children’s educational outcomes, independent of genetic endowment.

Keywords

intergenerational transmission; education; schooling; adoption;

Replaced by

James K. Hammitt, Jin-Tan Liu, and Meng-Wen Tsou, The Intergenerational Transmission of Education: Evidence from Taiwanese Adoptions, Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115, n. 1, April 2012, pp. 134–136.

Reference

James K. Hammitt, Jin-Tan Liu, and Meng-Wen Tsou, The Intergenerational Transmission of Education: Evidence from Taiwanese Adoptions, TSE Working Paper, n. 11-273, December 2011.

See also

Published in

TSE Working Paper, n. 11-273, December 2011