Mother's Education and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital: Evidence from College Openings
利用1970-1999年美国生命统计数据，以女性17岁时所在县是否有大学作为工具变量，发现母亲教育水平提高能改善婴儿出生体重和孕周等健康指标，并通过增加产前护理、减少吸烟、提高结婚率和降低生育次数等渠道发挥作用。
We examine the effect of maternal education on birth outcomes using Vital Statistics Natality data for 1970 to 1999. We also assess the importance of four channels through which maternal education may improve birth outcomes: use of prenatal care, smoking, marriage, and fertility. In an effort to account for the endogeneity of educational attainment, we use data about the availability of colleges in the woman's county in her seventeenth year as an instrument for maternal education. We find that higher maternal education improves infant health, as measured by birth weight and gestational age. It also increases the probability that a new mother is married, reduces parity, increases use of prenatal care, and reduces smoking, suggesting that these may be important pathways for the ultimate effect on health. Our results add to the growing body of literature which suggests that estimates of the returns to education which focus only on increases in wages understate the total return.