Abstract
We estimate the intergenerational transmission of schooling in a country where the majority of the population was rationed in its access to education. By eliminating apartheid-style policies against blacks, the 1980 education reforms in Zimbabwe swiftly tripled the transition rate to secondary schools. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, we find a robust intergenerational transmission. A one–year increase in the schooling of the mother raises her child’s attainment by 0.073 years; the corresponding father-to-child spillover is 0.092 years. Choices in the marriage and labor markets mediate the size of these schooling transmissions. Several smoothness and placebo tests validate our design.
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