Correlation, Consumption, Confusion, or Constraints: Why do Poor Children Perform so Poorly? / Elizabeth M. Caucutt, Lance Lochner, Youngmin Park.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Caucutt, Elizabeth M.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Lochner, Lance.

Park, Youngmin.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w21023.

NBER working paper series no. w21023

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Correlation, Consumption, Confusion, or Constraints

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2015.

Summary:

The economic and social mobility of a generation may be largely determined by the time it enters school given early developing and persistent gaps in child achievement by family income and the importance of adolescent skill levels for educational attainment and lifetime earnings. After providing new evidence of important differences in early child investments by family income, we study four leading mechanisms thought to explain these gaps: an intergenerational correlation in ability, a consumption value of investment, information frictions, and credit constraints. In order to better determine which of these mechanisms influence family investments in children, we evaluate the extent to which these mechanisms also explain other important stylized facts related to the marginal returns on investments and the effects of parental income on child investments and skills.

Notes:

Print version record

March 2015.