The effects of parental education on male mortality: evidence from the first wave of compulsory schooling laws.

ABSTRACT: This paper investigates the causal impact of fathers' education on sons' longevity by linking the full count 1940 US census to Social Security Administration death records and using the first wave of compulsory schooling laws from 1875 to 1912 as instruments for education. OLS estimates suggest small protective effects-conditional on children surviving until age 35, an extra year of fathers' education increases sons' age at death by 0.75 months. IV estimates are substantially larger, with an extra year of a father's education increasing his son's age at death by 5.6 months. We also find that an extra year of fathers' education increases sons' education by 0.22 years, conditional on children surviving till 16 years. This suggests that intergenerational transmission of human capital is a cha

SUBMITTER: Noghanibehambari H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12605591 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature