Skills Beget Skills: Addressing the Role of Mothers’ Occupation-Specific Skills on Children’s Developmental Process

This study examines whether mothers’ occupation-specific skills influence children’s development. I argue that relying solely on parental education as a proxy for parents’ skills provides an incomplete view of their human capital and may underestimate their role in social reproduction. Parents enhance their human capital through on-the-job learning, with occupation-specific expertise becoming integral to their skill sets. Using longitudinal family data (NLSY79-CYA) and the O*NET dataset, I employ two-way fixed effects, inverse probability weighting, and asymmetric fixed effects models. I exploit changes in mothers' occupation-specific skills when they switch jobs. Results indicate that when mothers transition to roles requiring more mathematical skills, their children’s mathematical abilities improve. Similar trends are observed in literacy skills, although the effects are less consistently robust. Additionally, longer maternal job tenure amplifies these effects, which are primarily driven by increases in skills rather than decreases. Furthermore, children in high-SES families benefit more from their mothers’ skill increases compared to their low-SES counterparts.