Parental Health and Child Schooling

42 Pages Posted: 26 Jan 2012

See all articles by Massimiliano Bratti

Massimiliano Bratti

Università degli Studi di Milano - DEAS; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Mariapia Mendola

University of Milan - Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano (LdA); Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Department of Economics, Management and Statistics (DEMS); Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Center for European Studies (CefES)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: July 15, 2011

Abstract

Evidence on the role of parental health on child schooling is surprisingly thin. We explore this issue by estimating the short-run effects of parents’ illness on child school enrollment. Our analysis is based on household panel data from Bosnia-Herzegovina, a country whose health and educational systems underwent extensive destruction during the 1992-1995 war. Using child fixed effects to correct for potential endogeneity bias, we find that - contrary to the common wisdom that shocks to the primary household earner should have more negative consequences for child education - it is especially maternal health that makes a difference as far as child schooling is concerned. Children whose mothers self reported having poor health are about 7 percentage points less likely to be enrolled in education at ages 15-24. These results are robust to considering alternative indicators of parental health status such as the presence of limitations in the activities of daily living and depression symptoms. Moreover, we find that mothers’ health shocks have more negative consequences on younger children and sons.

Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina, children, education, parents, school, self-reported health

JEL Classification: I21, O15

Suggested Citation

Bratti, Massimiliano and Mendola, Mariapia and Mendola, Mariapia, Parental Health and Child Schooling (July 15, 2011). Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano Development Studies Working Paper No. 318, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1992542 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1992542

Massimiliano Bratti

Università degli Studi di Milano - DEAS ( email )

Via Conservatorio, 7
I-20122 Milano
Italy

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Mariapia Mendola (Contact Author)

University of Milan - Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano (LdA) ( email )

Via Conservatorio 7
Milano, 20122
Italy

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Department of Economics, Management and Statistics (DEMS) ( email )

Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1
Milan, 20126
Italy

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Center for European Studies (CefES)

U6 Building
Viale Piero e Alberto Pirelli, 22
Milano, 20126
Italy

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
59
Abstract Views
980
Rank
469,855
PlumX Metrics