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School, Family and County Effects on Adolescents’ Later Life Chances

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Abstract

This paper explores the links between family, school and area background influences during adolescence and later adult economic outcomes. The empirical analysis is based on data covering the period 1979 to 1996, drawn from the 1979 US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. For a sample of individuals aged 14–19 in 1979, we estimate the association between family, school and area characteristics when growing up, on adult earnings capacity and poverty risk. We show that including all these influences jointly, family and school quality generally have significant associations with adult outcomes, but that area influences generally do not.

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Correspondence to Simon Burgess.

Additional information

Simon Burgess, Department of Economics, University of Bristol and CASE, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK; e-mail: Simon.Burgess@bristol.ac.uk

Karen Gardiner, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, Claverton Down Bath BA2 7AY, UK; e-mail: K.S.Gardiner@bath.ac.uk

Carol Propper, Department of Economics, University of Bristol and CASE, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK; e-mail: Carol.Propper@bristol.ac.uk

Appendix

Appendix

Table A1 Descriptives for Outcome Variables (Final Sample)

Table 6  

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Burgess, S., Gardiner, K. & Propper, C. School, Family and County Effects on Adolescents’ Later Life Chances. J Fam Econ Iss 27, 155–184 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-006-9010-2

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