We estimate the causal effect of parents' education on their children's education and examine the timing of the impact. We identify the causal effect by exploiting the exogenous shift in (parents') education levels induced by the 1972 minimum school leaving age reform in England. Increasing parental education has a positive causal effect on children's outcomes that is evident in preschool asses...

Leonel Morgado is Assistant Professor at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, in Portugal, where he lectures on the use of computers in early childhood education. His main research interest is the use of computer programming as a tool for learning, particularly within the context of preschool education. Before pursuing an academic career, he was terminologist for a MS Office 97 locali...