Mother’s education as a predictor of individual’s opportunities to learn and earn

Abstract

The educated mother may be a great source to enhance child's participation and opportunitiesin different spheres of life. Mother’s education is an essential and crucial factor in determining the incomeas well as education outcomes of a child. This study has investigated the effects of mother’s education onchild’s income and education outcomes. The household level data of Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys(MICS) conducted in Punjab province of Pakistan has been used for this purpose. The results show thatmother’s education, region of residence (rural/urban), and wealth status are significantly related withchild’s income and educationoutcomes. However, after controlling for an individual’s own education andworking experience as a determinant of hisincome, mother’s wealth status shows statistically significantrelationship with child’s income but mother’s education turns to be statistically insignificant. It impliesthat instead of having direct effects, mother’s education has indirect effects on child’s income and theseeffects are observed through the positive effects of mother’s education on child’s education outcomes.