Open AccessLocus of Control and its Intergenerational Implications for Early Childhood Skill Formation
Author(s) -
Lekfuangfu Warn N.,
Powdthavee Nattavudh,
Warrinnier Nele,
Cornaglia Francesca
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.683
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1468-0297
pISSN - 0013-0133
DOI - 10.1111/ecoj.12414
Subject(s) - locus of control , rationality , psychology , developmental psychology , style (visual arts) , control (management) , social psychology , economics , management , archaeology , political science , law , history
This article builds upon Cunha's (2015) subjective rationality model in which parents have a subjective belief about the impact of their investment on their children's early skill formation. We propose that this subjective belief is determined partly by locus of control ( LOC ), i.e. the extent to which individuals believe that their actions can influence future outcomes. Consistent with the theory, we show that maternal LOC measured at the 12th week of gestation strongly predicts maternal attitudes towards parenting style and actual time investments. We also utilise maternal LOC to improve the specification typically used to estimate skill production function parameters.