Parents' schooling and the correlation between education and frailty

This study investigates whether parents' education or unobserved variables partially explain correlations between education and a measure of frailty in adults. Data sets are drawn from the 1986 wave of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) - the only wave available that asks questions pertaining to Activities of Daily Living that, in turn, allows the construction of a Disability Index. The Disability Index and respondent's schooling are treated as endogenous. Parental schooling is strongly associated with adult schooling. Mothers' but not fathers' schooling is strongly associated with the Disability Index when adult schooling is ignored. But once adult respondent's schooling is taken into account, parental schooling and Disability Index associations evaporate. Unobserved variables are not of great importance in explaining respondent's education and frailty associations. Respondent's schooling is found to be strongly associated with the Disability Index even after removing the influences of parents' schooling and unobserved variables. [JEL I1, I2]