What Skills Can Buy

Doren, Catherine; Grodsky, Eric

doi:10.1177/0038040716667994

Cited by 36 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 80 publications

(109 reference statements)

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“…Parental wealth is associated with greater offspring educational and cognitive achievement (Conley 1999, 2001b; Doren & Grodsky 2016, Friedline et al 2015, Jez 2014, Orr 2003, Pfeffer 2011, Yeung & Conley 2008) and labor market outcomes, such as occupational attainment and work hours (Conley 1999, Pfeffer 2011). Parental wealth and home value appreciation are positively associated with college enrollment, institutional quality, and bachelor’s degree completion (Conley 2001b, Doren & Grodsky 2016, Jez 2014, Lovenheim & Reynolds 2013), as well as transitions to homeownership (Charles & Hurst 2002, Spilerman & Wolff 2012). …”

Section: Part Iii: Evidence On Wealth Consequences and Determinantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wealth Inequality and Accumulation

2017

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Research on wealth inequality and accumulation and the data upon which it relies have expanded substantially in the twenty-first century. While the field has experienced rapid growth, conceptual and methodological challenges remain. We begin by discussing two major unresolved methodological concerns facing wealth research: how to address challenges to causal inference posed by wealth’s cumulative nature and how to operationalize net worth, given its highly skewed nature. To underscore the need for continued empirical attention to net worth, we review trends in wealth levels and inequality and evaluate wealth’s distinctiveness as an indicator of social stratification. Next, we provide an overview of data sources available for wealth research. We then review recent empirical evidence on the effects of wealth on other social outcomes, as well as research on the determinants of wealth. We close with a list of promising avenues for future research on wealth, its causes, and its consequences.

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Section: Part Iii: Evidence On Wealth Consequences and Determinantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wealth Inequality and Accumulation

2017

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“…Consistent with these theoretical mechanisms, wealth levels are positively associated with educational attainment, academic achievement, and socioemotional functioning (Conwell and Ye 2021; Diemer et al 2020; Grinstein-Weiss et al 2014; Williams Shanks 2007). Net worth has particularly strong associations with educational attainment (Conley 2001; Doren and Grodsky 2016; Jez 2014; Karagiannaki 2017): children of the wealthiest parents are more than 40 percentage points more likely to graduate from college than children from the least wealthy families (Pfeffer 2018). For children younger than 18 years, parental wealth is positively correlated with standardized test scores and academic achievement (Friedline, Masa, and Chowa 2015; Miller et al 2021; Moulton et al 2021; Yeung and Conley 2008).…”

Section: Wealth and Child Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Net Worth Poverty and Child Development

Gibson‐Davis

Keister

Gennetian

et al. 2022

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

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The authors investigate whether net worth poverty (NWP) reduces children’s well-being. NWP—having wealth (assets minus debts) less than one fourth of the federal poverty line—is both theoretically and empirically distinct from income poverty (IP) and is the modal form of poverty among children. Data come from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its Child Development Supplement on children ages 3 to 17 years observed between 2002 and 2019. The authors use linear mixed-effects models to investigate the associations among NWP, IP, and four cognitive and behavioral outcomes. NWP reduces children’s cognitive scores and was associated with increases in both problem behavior scores. Negative associations for NWP are similar in magnitude to those found for IP. Much of the NWP effect operates through asset deprivation rather than high debt. The results illustrate the potential risks many children, previously overlooked in studies of IP, face because of wealth deprivation.

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“…Furthermore, unobserved factors may confound the association between parental wealth and children's educational outcomes. For instance, parents' cognitive and non-cognitive competences probably affect both their levels of wealth and their children's educational outcomes (Doren & Grodsky, 2016); but those were not measured in the NEPS. Therefore, our results may be upwardly biased and should not be interpreted as causal estimates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wealth Stratification in the Early School Career in Germany

Dräger¹,

Müller²

2019

Preprint

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Recent research has established parental wealth as an important determinant of children’s educational achievement. However, parental wealth is often ignored in research on social inequality in education, or its influence is only considered at later stages of children’s educational careers. Our paper contributes to this research by examining the relationship between parental wealth and (1) children’s math competences at the beginning of primary school; (2) the development of children’s competences throughout primary school; and (3) children’s transition from primary to secondary school. We are looking at Germany, where the early ability tracking may make an early investment in education particularly important. Analyzing data from the German National Educational Panel Study, we find that parental wealth has a distinct association with children’s educational outcomes that adds to social disparities by other measures of parents’ socioeconomic status (SES). Our results indicate that children in wealthy households have higher competences already in the first grade. This advantage remains stable throughout primary school and translates into a higher probability to attend the highest secondary school track. Moreover, children in these wealthy households are more likely to attend the highest secondary school track, net of differences in competences and performance. Our results imply that ignoring wealth as a component of parental SES leads to an underestimation of the level of social inequality in education in Germany.

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What Skills Can Buy

Cited by 36 publications

References 80 publications

Wealth Inequality and Accumulation

Wealth Inequality and Accumulation

Net Worth Poverty and Child Development

Wealth Stratification in the Early School Career in Germany

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