Investing in the Next Generation: The Long-Run Impacts of a Liquidity Shock
利用印度家庭实验数据，研究短期小微企业增长如何影响子女教育投资，发现识字家庭的教育投入增加但企业停滞，文盲家庭企业增长但教育下降，可能降低代际教育流动性。
Poor entrepreneurs must frequently choose between business investment and children’s education. To examine this trade-off, we exploit experimental variation in short-run microenterprise growth among a sample of Indian households and track schooling and business outcomes over eleven years. Treated households, who experience higher initial microenterprise growth, are on average one-third more likely to send children to college. However, educational investment and schooling gains are concentrated among literate-parent households, whose enterprises eventually stagnate. In contrast, illiterate-parent households experience long-run business gains but declines in children’s education. Our findings suggest that microenterprise growth has the potential to reduce relative intergenerational educational mobility.