Do Parental Networks Pay Off? Linking Children's Labor-Market Outcomes to Their Parents' Friends

Erik Plug; Bas van der Klaauw; Lennart Ziegler

doi:10.1111/sjoe.12227

Do Parental Networks Pay Off? Linking Children's Labor-Market Outcomes to Their Parents' Friends

Erik Plug, Bas van der Klaauw, Lennart Ziegler

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Abstract

In this paper, we examine whether children are better off if their parents have more elaborate social networks. Using data on high-school friendships of parents, we analyze whether the number and characteristics of friends affect the labor-market outcomes of children. While parental friendships formed in high school appear long lasting, we find no significant impact on their children's occupational choices and earnings prospects. These results do not change when we account for network endogeneity, network persistency, and network measurement error. Only when children enter the labor market do friends of parents have a marginally significant but small influence on their occupational choice.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	268-295
Number of pages	28
Journal	Scandinavian Journal of Economics
Volume	120
Issue number	1
Early online date	28 Dec 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/sjoe.12227
Publication status	Published - 17 Jan 2018

Funding

*This research uses the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The WLS has been supported principally by the National Institute on Aging. We thank seminar and conference participants in Amsterdam, Braga, and Ljubljana, as well as two anonymous referees, for their comments and suggestions. 2We thank the National Institute on Aging (AG-9775), the National Science Foundation (SBR-9320660), the Spencer Foundation, and the Center for Demography and Ecology and the Vilas Estate Trust at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for their support in collecting and disseminating data from the WLS. Only we bear the responsibility for the further analysis or interpretation of these data. Data and documentation from the WLS are available at http://dpls.dacc.wisc.edu/WLS/wlsearch.htm.

Funders	Funder number
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington
WLS
Vilas Estate Trust
Spencer Foundation
National Science Foundation	9320660
National Science Foundation	SBR-9320660
National Institute on Aging	AG-9775

Keywords

Informal job search
intergenerational effects
occupational choice
social networks

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1111/sjoe.12227

sjoe.12227_Do Parental Networks Pay Off_Linking Childrens LaborMarket Outcomes to Their Parents FriendsFinal published version, 221 KBLicence: Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act

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title = "Do Parental Networks Pay Off? Linking Children's Labor-Market Outcomes to Their Parents' Friends",

abstract = "In this paper, we examine whether children are better off if their parents have more elaborate social networks. Using data on high-school friendships of parents, we analyze whether the number and characteristics of friends affect the labor-market outcomes of children. While parental friendships formed in high school appear long lasting, we find no significant impact on their children's occupational choices and earnings prospects. These results do not change when we account for network endogeneity, network persistency, and network measurement error. Only when children enter the labor market do friends of parents have a marginally significant but small influence on their occupational choice.",

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Do Parental Networks Pay Off? Linking Children's Labor-Market Outcomes to Their Parents' Friends

Abstract

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Keywords

UN SDGs

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