Returns of parental education on children’s development by cultural inheritance and ethnic background

Returns of parental education on children’s development by cultural inheritance and ethnic background | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Returns of parental education on children’s development by cultural inheritance and ethnic background Maria Jahromi, Ariun-Erdene Bayarjargal This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4670482/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Parents’ education and the time they spend with their children are crucial for child development and human capital formation. We examine the returns of parental education on children’s cognitive devel- opment and academic performance, and how these effects vary by ethnicity. Using longitudinal data, random e↵ects models and Augmented Value Added models, we identify persistent test score gaps by ethnicity and by parental education which feed into later education and labor market outcomes. The gaps remain after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and ability. Asian children outperform due to larger time investments, selection into better schools and parenting styles. Indigenous children tend to underperform due to a complex interplay of lower financial resources, lower time investments and parenting styles. On average, parental education facilitates the intergenerational transmission of human capital across ethnic groups in similar ways. However, quintile regressions identify diminished returns to parental education for Indigenous children at the upper end of the test score distribution. Our results have policy implications with respect to structural barriers and equity in the education system. JEL classifications: I24, I26, J15, J18 Parental education minorities’ diminished returns academic performance cognitive development ethnicity culture Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files AppendixParentalEducationandChildrensDevelopment.pdf ParentalEducationandChildrensDevelopment.zip Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4670482","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":328251680,"identity":"94b02379-2503-4c52-a2a2-ad0f03bc7d08","order_by":0,"name":"Maria Jahromi","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA/UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYJCCAwwMbAwGIFZCBUREggQtZ4jUAgZgLYxtRGjRbT/78MAPBj55c+nDRzc8nGeXZ3CA+eBtHga7xAYcWszOpBsc7GFgM9zZl5Z2I3FbcrHBAbZkax6GZNxaDqQxHOBhYGPccIbHDKiFOXHDAR4zaR4GZtxazj9jOPiHgc0eomVOPVAL/zeglnrcWm6kMRwG2pII0dJwGGQLG1DLYTxanjEcljFgS95whi3tRsKx44kzD7MZW84xOG6M22FpzB/fVByz3XCG+djNHzXViX3Hmx/eeFNRLYtLCwQYHEPiMINF8KoHgRqCKkbBKBgFo2AEAwCmvFreh0vF6wAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Australian National University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Maria","middleName":"","lastName":"Jahromi","suffix":""},{"id":328251681,"identity":"fdbfde15-0c67-42a2-8475-06b31be90371","order_by":1,"name":"Ariun-Erdene Bayarjargal","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Productivity Commission, Australia","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ariun-Erdene","middleName":"","lastName":"Bayarjargal","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-07-01 23:44:14","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4670482/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4670482/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":77155875,"identity":"69a9d687-6a6f-4890-a9bc-d1345e9a9533","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-02-25 16:16:54","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":644687,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ManuscriptParentalEducationandChildrensDevelopment.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4670482/v1_covered_e356e774-f6e9-4ee1-a3a8-e727ea531028.pdf"},{"id":61031123,"identity":"a7ed90a3-ba60-4b8f-858f-9ecbee548bb4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-07-24 19:30:21","extension":"pdf","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":500481,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"AppendixParentalEducationandChildrensDevelopment.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4670482/v1/9d06f6b27196303d04d256b4.pdf"},{"id":61031121,"identity":"8e2db534-0149-4808-9691-3f45ae915991","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-07-24 19:30:21","extension":"zip","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":1435048,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ParentalEducationandChildrensDevelopment.zip","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4670482/v1/1f02142d6292088ea2cd6182.zip"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Returns of parental education on children’s development by cultural inheritance and ethnic background","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Parental education, minorities’ diminished returns, academic performance, cognitive development, ethnicity, culture","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4670482/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4670482/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eParents’ education and the time they spend with their children are crucial for child development and human capital formation. 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