Parent's Schooling and Child Well-Being in Taiwan

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究之目的在于评估台湾地区母亲教育与父亲教育对儿童健康与教育成果之因果影响。对这一专题的兴趣可以追溯到最近对人力资本的一般作用及其两个最重要组成部分————健康和学校教育————特别是在决定经济增长方面的作用的关注，以及许多研究中的证据表明，父母的教育对儿童福利的各种衡量标准具有积极和重大的影响。对于这种相关性是否反映了受更多教育与幸福感增加之间的因果关系，人们的共识要少得多。许多研究人员认为，忽略“第三变量”，如未来取向或遗传能力，可能会导致学校教育和幸福感的提高。本研究将采用自然实验的方法来评估台湾父母受教育程度的因果影响。​为了适应预期的初中入学人数的增加，政府在1968年开设了140所新的初中，增加了70%。该研究将使用1948年至1968年间出生的人群在接受义务教育改革方面的差异，以及不同地区12-14岁儿童的新初中入学人数（课程强度）。它将通过使用出生互动区域的队列和项目强度作为两阶段最小二乘和两步估计程序中上学的工具，估计母亲和父亲上学对儿童福祉的各种措施的影响。婴儿的健康结果包括出生体重；低体重和极低体重出生的概率；在调整出生体重和不调整出生体重的情况下新生儿和新生儿后期死亡的概率；产前护理开始的三个月；母亲吸烟；避孕行为;和母乳喂养。19岁以下儿童的健康结果包括儿童死亡的概率；体检结果；接种疫苗；吸烟;使用酒精;体育锻炼;以及适当饮食的知识。教育成果包括高中和大学入学考试成绩；完成高中学业的概率；进入大学的概率；以及所上大学的等级。生育结果是相关的，因为家庭中孩子的数量和每个孩子的幸福之间可能存在权衡，包括母亲第一次生育的年龄和期望的家庭规模。收集的数据是1978-2000年的所有出生和婴儿及儿童死亡证明；考试成绩档案；还有三个微观层面的调查。

DESCRIPTION (provide by the applicant): The specific aims of this project are to estimate the causal impacts of mother's education and father's education on child health and child educational outcomes in Taiwan. Interest in this topic can be traced to the recent focus on the role of human capital in general and its two most important components - health and schooling - in particular in the determination of economic growth and to the evidence in many studies that parents' education has a positive and significant effect on a variety of measures of child well-being. There is much less consensus as to whether this correlation reflects causality from more schooling to increases in well-being. A number of investigators have argued that omitted "third variables" such as a future orientation or heritable ability may cause both schooling and well-being to rise. The study will exploit a natural experiment to estimate the causal impact of the mothers 'and fathers' education in Taiwan. In 1968, the Taiwan government extended compulsory education from six to nine years. To accommodate the expected increase in enrollment in junior high schools, the government opened 140 new junior high schools, a seventy-percent increase, in 1968. The study will use variations across cohorts born between 1948 and 1968 in exposure to compulsory education reform and across regions in new junior high school openings per child ages 12-14(program intensity). It will estimate the impact of the mothers and fathers schooling on a variety of measures of child well-being by using cohort and program intensity in region of birth interactions as instruments for schooling in two-stage least squares and two-step estimation procedures. Health outcomes for infants include birthweight; the probabilities of low- and very low-weight births; the probabilities of neonatal and post-neonatal death with and without adjustment for birthweight; the trimester in which prenatal care began; maternal cigarette smoking; contraceptive practices; and breastfeeding. Health outcomes for children through age 19 include the probability of child death; physical examination outcomes; receipt of vaccinations; cigarette smoking; alcohol use; physical exercise; and knowledge of appropriate diet. Educational outcomes include scores on senior high school and university entrance examinations; the probability of completing senior high school; the probability of entering university; and rank of university attended. Fertility outcomes, relevant because there may be tradeoffs between the number of children in the family and the well-being of each child, include mother's age at first birth and desired family size. The data collections are all birth and infant and child death certificates for 1978-2000; files with test scores; and three micro level surveys.