Volume 23, Number 3 (Summer) 1988
Kodde, David A. and Jozef M. M. Ritzen. 1988. "Direct and Indirect Effects of Parental Education Level on the Demand for Higher Education." Journal of Human Resources 23(3):356-371.
This paper investigates empirically the impact of parental education level, family income, scholastic ability, and expectations on earnings and employment on the demand for higher education in the Netherlands. In theory the factors mentioned are important determinants of educational choice. The Wald or distance test is used to discriminate between direct and indirect effects of the parental education level and other background variables on the demand for higher education. We find that family income, ability, and expectations have a direct effect on earnings and employment, while the parental education level exerts indirect effects only.
Kodde is a professor of economics at the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and Ritzen is a professor of economics at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The authors gratefully acknowledge comments of E. van Imhoff, F. van der Reep, and an anonymous referee of this journal, which led to major improvements. The original research paper that forms the basis of this article, which contains all the empirical material, can be obtained from the second author for the first two years after publication. The authors claim responsibility for any remaining errors.
© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X