Intergenerational transmission of education : an alert to empirical implementation

The intergenerational transmission of education is certainly a problem that continues to challenge most countries. The level of education that an individual rises to is linked to the education level(s) of her/his parents. This note serves as an alert to researchers undertaking empirical investigation into how the parents' education should be considered with regard to the child's. Using Portuguese data we conclude that the parents should be viewed as a unit (i.e. as a couple), and we should examine all of the different education combinations, avoiding the temptation to aggregate them in larger categories. -- transmission of education ; human capital ; parent’s education