The Impact of Childhood Circumstances on Individual Outcomes Over the Life-course

Tasks

The impact of childhood circumstances on outcomes in adulthood has been widely studied in the literature on this topic. Although much is known about the relationship between parental background and children’s performance at certain stages of their adulthood, little work has been done on analysing how childhood circumstances influence the educational and labour market outcomes of individuals over the entire course of their life. Rather than focusing on a specific stage of adulthood, this project aims to employ a life-course perspective and analyse how circumstances in childhood affect influential decisions that mark individuals’ transition to adulthood, and how these decisions translate into social and economic outcomes at later stages in life. We will simultaneously address these questions from intergenerational mobility and equal opportunity perspectives and draw on cross-country comparisons to identify the causal mechanisms via which social and economic advantages are transmitted from one generation to another.

Methods

The project relies on up-to-date and adequate micro-econometric techniques including regression analyses, policy evaluation methods and micro-simulations.

Data and other sources

We will use both administrative and survey data. Single country analysis for France and Germany, for example, rely on data from FQP and GSOEP, while register data will be used for Sweden. Cross-country analyses will be carried out by using EU-SILC and SHARE. Additional datasets like BCS70, and PSID will be utilised for result validation and further comparison.

Results

The results will be presented on a dedicated project website.

Publications

The results will be communicated via peer-reviewed journals, policy briefs for wider non-scientific audiences and press releases with a view to attracting media coverage.