Interactions between Family and School Environments

Abstract

We use Romanian data to ask whether the benefit of access to better schools is larger for children who experienced better family environments because their parents had access to abortion. We combine regression discontinuity and differences-in-differences designs to estimate impacts on a high-stakes school-leaving exam. We find that access to abortion and access to better schools each have positive impacts but find no consistent evidence of interactions between these impacts. To the extent a pattern emerges, it is suggestive of substitutability rather than complementarity of family and school environments.