Childhood Investments in International Human Capital

Susan Pozo , Western Michigan University
Isabel Ruiz, University of Oxford

Do individuals, with exposure to foreign cultures during childhood, experience improved labor market outcomes as adults? This project extends our understanding of the rewards to international human capital accumulation by 1) differentiating very early exposures to international experiences from later childhood exposures, 2) accounting for inter-generational transfers of human capital from parents to children, 3) using Americans born abroad into U.S. citizenship as our treated group to dispense with selection issues that arise from testing the hypothesis using traditional immigrants. Data from the American Community Survey from 2001-2016 is used to capture a relationship from international experiences in childhood to labor market returns in adulthood.

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 Presented in Session 2. Children & Youth