Estimating the Effects of Family Background on the Return to Schooling
利用职业代际变化调查数据，研究家庭背景（父母教育程度和家庭规模）对教育回报率的影响，发现大家庭中男性的教育回报率显著更低，而父母教育的影响较小。
AbstractThis article examines the causal link between family background characteristics—parental education and family size—and returns to schooling. I implement a model of schooling and earnings with heterogeneous returns to education using data from the Occupational Change in a Generation Survey. I find that men raised in larger families have substantially lower returns to education, whereas the combined effects of parental education are more modest. In addition, like other "supply-side" instrumental variables studies of the causal effect of education, I find two-stage least squares estimates that are larger than the corresponding ordinary least squares estimates. The results suggest an alternative explanation for this phenomenon: constant marginal return to schooling, combined with a negative absolute ability bias and a positive comparative advantage bias.KEY WORDS: Ability biasFamily backgroundReturn to educationSelf-selection