Scientifico! Like Dad: On the Intergenerational Transmission of Stem Education in Italy

54 Pages Posted: 28 Oct 2019 Last revised: 16 Apr 2023

See all articles by Diana Chise

Diana Chise

European Central Bank (ECB)

Margherita Fort

University of Bologna; Ifo Institute, CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute), Ifo Institute; IZA

Chiara Monfardini

University of Bologna - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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Abstract

We provide novel evidence on the existence and the extent of intergenerational transmission of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education using a recent large administrative dataset of Italian graduates obtained from the Almalaurea data. Parental influence on two STEM educational outcomes (high school and university degree completion) is strong and, net of student's time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity, proves to be stronger at the stage of the educational career closer to labour market entry. At this stage, the influence of fathers outweighs the one of mothers and is larger for sons than for daughters. The documented STEM intergenerational transmission is not driven by liberal profession of parents for most of STEM fields, while it is for some non-STEM fields (economic and legal studies), consistently with the presence of entry barriers in some professions.

Keywords: parents, intergenerational transmission, gender, STEM

JEL Classification: J16, J24, I24

Suggested Citation

Chise, Diana and Fort, Margherita and Monfardini, Chiara, Scientifico! Like Dad: On the Intergenerational Transmission of Stem Education in Italy. IZA Discussion Paper No. 12688, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3475794 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3475794

Diana Chise (Contact Author)

European Central Bank (ECB) ( email )

Sonnemannstrasse 22
Frankfurt am Main, 60314
Germany

Margherita Fort

University of Bologna ( email )

Piazza Scaravilli 2
Bologna, 40100
Italy

Ifo Institute, CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute), Ifo Institute ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich
Germany

IZA ( email )

Chiara Monfardini

University of Bologna - Department of Economics ( email )

Piazza Scaravilli 2
Bologna, 40126
Italy
0039 51 2098148 (Phone)
0039 51 221968 (Fax)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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