The life cycle of early skill formation

This thesis focuses on two dimensions of the child production function - the technology of human capital formation and the role of speci�fic family inputs into human capital. The �first two chapters explore the technology by which inputs produce child human capital. Speci�fically, for given parental lifetime income, these ask whether the timing of income matters for later outcomes of the children. Two methodologies estimate the effect at different margins. Firstly in a fully flexible model, the relationship between parental income at child ages 0-5, 6-11 and 12-17 and subsequent child outcomes is estimated nonparametrically, allowing for complementarity across periods. Income aged 0-5 is as important in general as income at age 6-11 for child human capital formation. Complementarities exist between 0-5 and 6-11 for households with low permanent income, which are those likely to be credit constrained. Similarly, very strong complementarities are found between early years income and income during adolescence (age 12-17) for the group of poor parents. Chapter 3 analyses the role of permanent and transitory income shocks at different ages, upon adolescent human capital. Empirical results suggest the effect of permanent shocks declines across age. This is intuitive, given that a permanent shock changes household wealth and hence a shock at age 1 drives more future income realisations than a later shock. Transitory shocks on the other hand, have an increasing effect upon child outcomes across child age. Further, there is evidence of intrahousehold insurance against paternal transitory income shocks. The fi�nal two chapters of the thesis look at parental inputs in the production function. Chapter 4 allows the life cycle of skill formation to begin pre-birth, by estimating the role of maternal smoking during pregnancy upon birth outcomes. Results suggest a large proportion of the correlation is explained by a maternal fi�xed effect. Finally, chapter 5 offers a cross country comparison of the similarities in child test score gaps, by a range of measures of family inequality. Despite wide institutional differences, this chapter estimates homogeneous correlates for maternal education, family size and child gender upon child achievement, but differences in the covariates of lone parenthood and ethnicity

Smarter task assignment or greater effort: the impact of incentives on team performance

We use an experiment to study the impact of team-based incentives, exploiting rich data from personnel records and management information systems. Using a triple difference design, we show that the incentive scheme had an impact on team performance, even with quite large teams. We examine whether this effect was due to increased effort from workers or strategic task reallocation. We find that the provision of financial incentives did raise individual performance but that managers also disproportionately reallocated efficient workers to the incentivised tasks. We show that this reallocation was the more important contributor to the overall outcome

Intergenerational Mobility and the Timing of Parental Income

We extend the standard intergenerational mobility literature by examining the relationship between adult outcomes of children and the timing of parental income during their childhood years, using data from Norway. We find first that, conditional on permanent household income, the child’s human capital is higher in households where income is balanced between the early childhood and late childhood years than in households with a more imbalanced income profile. Second, compared to that in the early and late periods of childhood, income in the middle period has relatively low productivity

Gender differences in behavioral regulation in four societies: The United States, Taiwan, South Korea, and China

The current study investigates gender differences in behavioral regulation in four societies: the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, and China. Directly assessed individual behavioral regulation (Head–Toes–Knees–Shoulders, HTKS), teacher-rated classroom behavioral regulation (Child Behavior Rating Scale, CBRS) and a battery of school readiness assessments (mathematics, vocabulary, and early literacy) were used with 814 young children (ages 3–6 years). Results showed that girls in the United States had significantly higher individual behavioral regulation than boys, but there were no significant gender differences in any Asian societies. In contrast, teachers in Taiwan, South Korea, as well as the United States rated girls as significantly higher than boys on classroom behavioral regulation. In addition, for both genders, individual and classroom behavioral regulation were related to many aspects of school readiness in all societies for girls and boys. Universal and culturally specific findings and their implications are discussed

The life cycle of early skill formation.

This thesis focuses on two dimensions of the child production function - the technology of human capital formation and the role of speci…fic family inputs into human capital. The …first two chapters explore the technology by which inputs produce child human capital. Speci…fically, for given parental lifetime income, these ask whether the timing of income matters for later outcomes of the children. Two methodologies estimate the effect at different margins. Firstly in a fully flexible model, the relationship between parental income at child ages 0-5, 6-11 and 12-17 and subsequent child outcomes is estimated nonparametrically, allowing for complementarity across periods. Income aged 0-5 is as important in general as income at age 6-11 for child human capital formation. Complementarities exist between 0-5 and 6-11 for households with low permanent income, which are those likely to be credit constrained. Similarly, very strong complementarities are found between early years income and income during adolescence (age 12-17) for the group of poor parents. Chapter 3 analyses the role of permanent and transitory income shocks at different ages, upon adolescent human capital. Empirical results suggest the effect of permanent shocks declines across age. This is intuitive, given that a permanent shock changes household wealth and hence a shock at age 1 drives more future income realisations than a later shock. Transitory shocks on the other hand, have an increasing effect upon child outcomes across child age. Further, there is evidence of intrahousehold insurance against paternal transitory income shocks. The fi…nal two chapters of the thesis look at parental inputs in the production function. Chapter 4 allows the life cycle of skill formation to begin pre-birth, by estimating the role of maternal smoking during pregnancy upon birth outcomes. Results suggest a large proportion of the correlation is explained by a maternal fi…xed effect. Finally, chapter 5 offers a cross country comparison of the similarities in child test score gaps, by a range of measures of family inequality. Despite wide institutional differences, this chapter estimates homogeneous correlates for maternal education, family size and child gender upon child achievement, but differences in the covariates of lone parenthood and ethnicity.