This study will analyze the interactions and interdependencies between school inputs and parental inputs as determinants of a child's educational achievement. This study considers two important dimensions of school and parental input decisions: the parents' choice of which school attendance area to live in, and the mother's decision to work, as a proxy for maternal time directly devoted to child education. A behavioral model of residential location and maternal employment decisions and their effects on child outcomes is developed. Using unique, longitudinal, mother-child data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth matched with detailed data on all U.S. schools, we estimate the parameters of the theoretical model. Estimates of the preference and production function parameters will make it possible to provide a detailed characterization of the mechanisms through which school inputs and maternal employment decisions affect children, and the effects of policy on migration, female employment and child outcomes. Understanding the mechanisms through which school quality and parental behaviors affect children's development is important for science, and for policy makers and parents in making decisions about the allocation of resources to children. Existing studies typically analyze the importance of school characteristics and parental inputs such as maternal employment in isolation. As both types of inputs are unlikely to be determined independently from each other, the omission of inputs from an educational production function specification is likely to result in endogeneity biases. This suggests a potentially important reason for the great variability in estimates found in the literature. This research project should help to resolve many of the conflicting estimates of the importance of parental behaviors and school inputs on child achievement. ? ? ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD047213-03
Application #
7503487
Study Section
Social Sciences and Population Studies Study Section (SSPS)
Program Officer
King, Rosalind B
Project Start
2006-09-27
Project End
2010-06-30
Budget Start
2008-07-01
Budget End
2010-06-30
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$252,749
Indirect Cost
Name
Clemson University
Department
Miscellaneous
Type
Other Domestic Higher Education
DUNS #
042629816
City
Clemson
State
SC
Country
United States
Zip Code
29634
Mroz, Thomas A; Picone, Gabriel; Sloan, Frank et al. (2016) Screening for a Chronic Disease: A Multiple Stage Duration Model with Partial Observability. Int Econ Rev (Philadelphia) 57:915-934
Liu, Haiyong; Mroz, Thomas A; van der Klaauw, Wilbert (2010) Maternal Employment, Migration, and Child Development. J Econom 156:212-228
Liu, Haiyong; Mroz, Thomas; Adair, Linda (2009) Parental Compensatory Behaviors and Early Child Health Outcomes in Cebu, Philippines(). J Dev Econ 90:209-230