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

Arbeitspapier

This paper examines whether children are better off if their parents have stronger 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, we find that friends of parents have a marginally significant but small influence on the occupational choice of children.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 9074

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Sociology of Economics ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Informal Labor Markets ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
• Subject: social networks ; occupational choice ; informal job search ; intergenerational effects

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Plug, Erik ; van der Klaauw, Bas ; Ziegler, Lennart
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2015

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/111525
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET