2022 Klein Lecture Parental Education and Invention: The Finnish Enigma

Philippe Aghion; Ufuk Akcigit; Ari Hyytinen; Otto Toivanen

doi:10.1111/iere.12632

2022 Klein Lecture Parental Education and Invention: The Finnish Enigma

Philippe Aghion^*, Ufuk Akcigit, Ari Hyytinen, Otto Toivanen

^*Corresponding author for this work

Economics, Helsinki

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

Abstract

Why is invention strongly positively correlated with parental income not only in the United States but also in Finland, which displays low income inequality and high social mobility? Using data on 1.45 M Finnish individuals and their parents, we find the following: (i) the positive association between parental income and off-spring probability of inventing is greatly reduced when controlling for parental education; (ii) instrumenting for the parents having an MSc degree using distance to nearest university reveals a large causal effect of parental education on offspring probability of inventing; and (iii) the causal effect of parental education has been markedly weakened by the introduction in the early 1970s of a comprehensive schooling reform.

Original language	English
Peer-reviewed scientific journal	International Economic Review
Volume	64
Issue number	2
Pages (from-to)	453-490
Number of pages	38
ISSN	0020-6598
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/iere.12632
Publication status	Published - 21.03.2023
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article - refereed

Keywords

511 Economics

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1111/iere.12632Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Int Economic Review - 2023 - Aghion - 2022 KLEIN LECTURE PARENTAL EDUCATION AND INVENTION THE FINNISH ENIGMAFinal published version, 2.04 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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2022 Klein Lecture Parental Education and Invention: The Finnish Enigma

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Keywords

UN SDGs

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