Do the Human Capital Investments of Young Mothers Affect Their Children's Educational Outcomes?

Quinn Moore, University of Michigan
Lucie Schmidt, University of Michigan

Existing literature finds that highly educated mothers tend to have children with superior educational outcomes. However, little work has been done on the effects of human capital investments undertaken by women while they are mothering small children. A simple model of household time allocation would suggest that time spent on human capital investment would reduce time spent with children, and thus negatively impact the child outcomes. Alternatively, maternal time in education and training activities may have positive spillover effects on investment in children, including role model effects and improved ability to help with homework. This paper examines the relationship between human capital investments of young mothers and their children's educational outcomes using data from the Children of the NLSY. Preliminary results suggest that the positive spillover effects on child outcomes dominate the negative effects of time trade-offs.