Daniel Avdic, Monash University - Family matters: Parental leave and the intergenerational transmission of skills

Title: Family matters: Parental leave and the intergenerational transmission of skills

Abstract: We contribute to the literature on intergenerational skill transmission by studying how children’s cognitive abilities are affected by an increased parenting role of the father. To obtain plausible exogenous variation in father’s involvement, we exploit empirical variation from a “daddy month” reform in Sweden, which gave additional economic incentives for families to substitute paid leave from the mother to the father, in a difference in regression discontinuity design. We find evidence that boys to low (high) educated fathers who were born just after the reform was implemented had about 0.1 standard deviations lower (higher) compulsory schooling leaving grades compared to children born just before the threshold. Our findings may advise policy to counter increased inequality from parents’ socioeconomic status.

Presenter: Daniel Avdic, Monash University

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