We investigate the causal effect of education on spousal education using a sample of couples from the Health and Retirement Study. We estimate reduced-form linear matching functions derived from a parsimonious matching model which links spouses’ education. Using OLS we find that an additional year in husband’s (resp. wife’s) education is associated with an average increase in wife’s (resp. husband’s) education of 0.41 years —95% CI: 0.37, 0.45 (resp. 0.63 years —95% CI: 0.57, 0.68). To deal with endogeneity issues due to measurement error and omitted variables, we use a measure of genetic propensity (polygenic score) for educational attainment as an instrumental variable. Assuming that our instrument is valid, our 2SLS estimate suggests that an additional year in husband’s (resp. wife’s) education increases wife’s (resp. husband’s) education by about 0.49 years —95% CI: 0.35, 0.62 (resp. 0.76 —95% CI: 0.56, 0.96). Since greater genetic propensity for educational attainment has been linked to a range of personality and cognitive skills, we allow for the possibility that the exclusion restriction is violated using the plausible exogenous approach by Conley et al. (2012). A positive causal effect of education on spousal education cannot be ruled out, as long as one standard deviation increase in husband’s (wife’s) genetic propensity for education directly increases wife’s (husband’s) education by less than 0.2 (0.3) years.

我们使用健康与退休研究中的夫妇样本来调查教育对配偶教育的因果影响。我们估计从连接配偶教育的简约匹配模型派生的简化形式的线性匹配函数。使用 OLS，我们发现丈夫（或妻子）的教育增加一年与妻子（或丈夫）的教育平均增加 0.41 年相关——95% CI：0.37、0.45（分别为 0.63 年——95% CI : 0.57, 0.68)。为了处理由于测量误差和遗漏变量引起的内生性问题，我们使用教育程度的遗传倾向（多基因评分）作为工具变量。假设我们的工具是有效的，我们的 2SLS 估计表明丈夫（或妻子）的教育增加一年会增加妻子（或妻子）的教育水平。丈夫的) 教育约 0.49 年 —95% CI: 0.35, 0.62 (resp. 0.76 —95% CI: 0.56, 0.96)。由于受教育程度更高的遗传倾向与一系列人格和认知技能有关，我们允许使用 Conley 等人的合理外生方法违反排除限制的可能性。(2012)。不能排除教育对配偶教育的积极因果效应，只要丈夫（妻子）的教育遗传倾向增加一个标准差，直接使妻子（丈夫）的教育增加不到​​ 0.2（0.3）年。我们允许使用 Conley 等人的合理外生方法违反排除限制的可能性。(2012)。不能排除教育对配偶教育的积极因果效应，只要丈夫（妻子）的教育遗传倾向增加一个标准差，直接使妻子（丈夫）的教育增加不到​​ 0.2（0.3）年。我们允许使用 Conley 等人的合理外生方法违反排除限制的可能性。(2012)。不能排除教育对配偶教育的积极因果效应，只要丈夫（妻子）的教育遗传倾向增加一个标准差，直接使妻子（丈夫）的教育增加不到​​ 0.2（0.3）年。