The Long-Run Impact of Childhood Poverty and the Mediating Role of Education

Arbeitspapier

This paper examines the role of education as causal channel through which growing up poor affects the economic outcomes in adulthood in the European Union. We apply a potential outcomes approach to quantify those impacts and we provide a sensitivity analysis on possible unobserved confounders, such as child ability. Our estimates indicate that being poor in childhood significantly decreases the level of income in adulthood and increases the average probability of being poor. Moreover, our results reveal a significant role of education in this intergenerational transmission. These results are particularly relevant for Mediterranean and Central and Easter European Countries.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 10677

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions ; Measurement and Analysis of Poverty ; Education and Inequality ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
• Subject: poverty ; intergenerational transmission ; potential outcome ; causal mediation analysis ; education

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bellani, Luna ; Bia, Michela
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2017

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/161300
• Last update: 05.11.20252025, 2:08 PM CET