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Title: Human Capital Spillovers in Families: Do Parents Learn from or Lean on their Children?

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2011

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Abstract: I develop a model in which a child's acquisition of a given form of human capital incentivizes adults in his household to either learn from him (if children act as teachers then adults' cost of learning the skill falls) or lean on him (if children's human capital substitutes for that of adults in household production then adults' benefi t of learningthe skill falls). I exploit regional variation in two shocks to children's human capital and examine the eff ect on adults. The rapid introduction of primary education forblack children in the South during Reconstruction not only increased literacy of children but also of adults living in the same household (\learning" outweighs \leaning"). Conversely, the 1998 introduction of English immersion in California public schools appears to have increased the English skills of children but discouraged adults living with them from acquiring the language (\leaning" outweighs \learning"). In both examples, the results are driven by households with children of school-going age, suggesting that children's human capital acquisition, and not some omitted variable, is driving the eff ect on adults.

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Authors: Kuziemko, Ilyana

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Institution: Princeton and NBER

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Education

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