This study applies bivariate probit models to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data set to explore the effects of parental schooling on the physical and mental health of child and the underlying mechanism of the transmission of these beneficial effects. The major sample (Sample 1) includes 31,756 children with both parents present and the second sample (Sample 2) includes 13,524 children with single mothers. A typical child in the first sample has about 84% (and 86%) probability to have Very Good/Excellent physical (and mental) health. Similar probabilities in the second sample are about 6 percentage point less. Across the subgroups of Sample 1, the top followed by the middle age-group children, Hispanics followed by Blacks, and the children from lower income families have greater probabilities of having Poor/Fair/Good physical or mental health.
Using the perceived physical and mental health status of child as the outcome variable, the results in the Sample 1 indicate that (a) benefits of parental schooling increases with levels of parental schooling; (b) mother‟s schooling has greater impacts than father‟s; and (c) the impacts of parental schooling on physical health of child is slightly larger than on mental health. For instance, relative to having No Degree at all, mother‟s having an HSD/GED (and College Degree) increases the probability that the reported physical health status of her child is Very Good/Excellent as opposed to Poor/Fair/Good by about 5.2% (and 8.6%) in terms of non-monetary effects where parental income and child‟s health insurance type are already controlled for. Similar probabilities for father‟s schooling are about 3.6% (and 5.6%) respectively. For mental
health, these probabilities are about 4.6% and 7.1% for mother‟s schooling, and 2.5% and 3.6% for father‟s schooling respectively. The total effects of parental schooling are about 2 percentage points higher than these non-monetary effects, implying that the combined contribution of the monetary-effects of income and health insurance attributable to parental schooling in raising the probability that the child health is Very Good/Excellent as opposed to Poor/Fair/Good is about 2%.
About one-fifth of the total effects of parental schooling are thus monetary in origin, and transmit through the channels of increased parental income and access to better health insurance attributable to higher level of parental schooling. Most of the effects (about four-fifths) are non-monetary in nature and stem from the higher level of parental schooling, possibly working through better access to and use of relevant health care information, better allocation of health care inputs, and thereby increased efficiency and health productivity.
The results in Sample 2 also suggest similar beneficial effects of mother‟s schooling, with marginally greater impacts on mental health than on physical health. Similar beneficial effects of parental schooling can be observed across most of the subgroups with varying degree. For instance, mother's effects seem to be somewhat larger on male child than on female. Both mother's and father's effects are largest for the top age-group children. The effects of parental schooling on child health are particularly highest for the Hispanic, followed by Black and White (the effects on the Other race are largely insignificant). Similarly, the effects on the low income families are larger than on high income families. These all indicate that the subgroups with relatively
inferior health of child (and thus warrant greater support in relative sense) have by and large greater potential to benefit from parental schooling in the long run.
Controlling for parental schooling and other factors, the contributions of parental income on child health is negligible, whereas having a private health insurance as opposed to having only a public health insurance seems clearly favorable. Among other regressors, being a young child; being a female; being a first-born; living in MSA; having healthier parents (particularly mother); and belonging to the more recent panels have some contributing effects on both physical and mental health of child.
Despite substantial differences in the methodology and contexts, the findings of this study are somewhat similar to comparable studies. For instance, the findings that non-monetary factors attributable to the parental schooling play a bigger role than the monetary factors and that the mother‟s effects are bigger than the father‟s are largely consistent with the findings of Caldwell et al (1982), Thomas et al (1991), Basu et al (2005), and Aslam et al (2012) in the context of the developing countries.
To my knowledge, this study is unique in that it analyzes the possible mechanisms by which parental schooling may bring about beneficial effects on overall child health – both physical and mental, using the recent data in the U.S. context. Also, the use of a bivariate probit model as opposed to separate probit models to account for the likely correlation between the background factors influencing the two dependent variables, and the inclusion of parental health to address potential econometric issues are some strengths of this study. Understanding of the beneficial effects of parental schooling and the underlying mechanisms can be useful to the policy makers in formulating more comprehensive and effective health and education policies for the
future, given the limited resources. In particular, the findings that the non-monetary (intangible) effects of parental schooling are even more important than the monetary effects, and that mother‟s effects are greater than father‟s, can have significant efficiency implications. Also, the observations that Hispanic followed by Black children have relatively inferior health, but have greater potential to benefit from parental schooling in the same order, can be useful information to be incorporated in the future policies. For instance, differential supports such as education subsidies to the needed social strata can thus be justified on economic grounds. It should not be ignored however that the beneficial effects in the form of better child health are only a part of the total benefits of parental schooling (there are health and other benefits that accrue to the parents themselves and the society as a whole in the form of positive externalities), which makes the investment in education even more important.