Repository logo
 

Parental beliefs about returns to educational investments-The Later the better?

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Boneva, T 

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of European Economic Association. All rights reserved. In this paper, we study parental beliefs about the returns to parental investments made during different periods of childhood. Using two independent samples, we document that parents perceive the returns to different late investments to be higher than the returns to early investments, and that they perceive investments in different time periods as substitutes rather than complements. We show that parental beliefs about the returns to investments vary substantially across the population and that individual beliefs are predictive of actual investment decisions. Moreover, we document that parental beliefs about the productivity of investments differ significantly across socioeconomic groups. Perceived returns to early parental investments are positively associated with household income, thereby potentially contributing to the intergenerational persistence in earnings.

Description

Keywords

38 Economics, 3801 Applied Economics, Basic Behavioral and Social Science, Clinical Research, Behavioral and Social Science, Pediatric

Journal Title

Journal of the European Economic Association

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1542-4766
1542-4774

Volume Title

16

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Isaac Newton Trust (Minute 1106(n))
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) (INET12-00032)
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) (INET 12-00032)