PROJECT MANAGER: KJELL GUNNAR SALVANES 

Project duration: 2018-2023

PROJECT DETAILS:

An important and growing literature across many fields, has documented a socioeconomic gap early in life that grows into adulthood, and persists across generations. There is, however, a lack of scientific evidence of the causal mechanisms driving this. We aim to investigate how much of the socioeconomic gradient reflects parental investments in children and children’s performance. First, we study how parents’ investments in the human capital of their children depend on parents’ moral, time, risk preferences and beliefs, and how this affects children’s cognitive and non cognitive skills. Second, we use randomized controlled trials and natural policy experiments to investigate how and when one should target human capital formation in childhood and adolescence. Third, we aim to identify causal effects of parents and higher educational institutions on the persistence of human capital accumulation across generations.

Funding source:

Joint funding from FRIPRO Toppforsk and NHH