Centre for Economic Performance (London School of Economics)
Abstract
We propose a model in which parents have a subjective belief about the impact of their investment on the early skill formation of their children. This subjective belief is determined in part by locus of] control (LOC), i.e., the extent to which individuals believe that their actions can influence future
outcomes. Using a unique British cohort survey, we show that maternal LOC measured during the 1sttrimester strongly predicts early and late child cognitive and noncognitive outcomes. Further, we utilize the variation in maternal LOC to improve the specification typically used in the estimation of parental investment effects on child development.status: publishe