Effect of maternal education and employment on children’s educational attainment in Mexico

Human capital formation literature states that an individual’s educational attainment is primarily determined by parental education and other socioeconomic characteristics. In Mexico, during the last 20 years, mothers’ education and labor market participation have increased considerably. These changes have impacted different aspects of family organization, such as children’s educational attention. Most studies on intergenerational educational transmission focus on how the educational attainment of the mother or father impacts their children’s educational attainment. However, few studies consider the employment situation of the mother. This paper aims to analyze the combined effect of the mother’s educational level and employment status on the educational attainment of her children. We estimate the probabilities of completing each school year through a duration model, including an analysis by sex. Our results show that the mother’s employment status is positively related to the probability of staying at school, but only for sons. However, when the mother works, the educational attainment gap between daughters and sons narrows. Furthermore, for higher-educated mothers, their employment status is positively related to the probability of their daughters staying at school. Our results indicate that the impact of mothers’ socioeconomic characteristics on their children’s educational future is greater for daughters than sons. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.