regions and cohorts with poorer family background. Parental education has had asymmetric effects, positive on attainment and … individuals with poor family background and negative for individuals born in regions and cohorts with relatively high parental … to parental education in the production of individual human capital. When school quality and family background are …

We use a large, rich Canadian micro-level dataset to examine the channels through which family socio-economic status … and unobservable characteristics affect children's decisions to drop out of high school. First, we document the strength … of observable socio-economic factors: our data suggest that teenage boys with two parents who are themselves high school …

estimate changes in the effects of ability and family income on educational attainment for youth in their late teens during the … cohorts, while family income plays little role in determining high school completion in either cohort. Most interestingly, we … document a dramatic increase in the effects of family income on college attendance (particularly among the least able) from the …