Intergenerational poverty dynamics in Poland : family background and children's educational attainment during transition

In this paper, we analyse the intergenerational transmission of poverty from Polish parents to their children through children´s educational attainment during the transition process of the 1990s. The relationship between family background and education is investigated using an ordered probit model of educational attainment with data from the Polish Labour Force Survey. The results show that children´s education is strongly related to household structure, parents´ education, city size, and region of residence. Household income and the parents´ labour market situation have only a weak, though significant, effect on children´s education. We conclude that, if poverty transmission takes place between generations, this seems to be primarily caused by the inheritance of human capital rather than by pure wealth effects.