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Unequal opportunities and public policy: The impact of parental disability benefits on child postsecondary attendance

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  • Kelly Chen
  • Lars Osberg
  • Shelley Phipps

Abstract

This paper uses Canada's National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth to examine whether greater cash transfers available to parents with disabilities when their child was aged 5 to 15 increase the chances that the child will attend postsecondary education (PSE) as a young adult. We exploit differences across provinces and over time in the generosity of provincial disability benefits programs in Canada and find that higher disability benefits when the child was aged 5 to 15 years increase the probability that he or she will have attended or be attending PSE by age 19 to 25. The estimated effect size increases with the severity of the parental disability and the number of disabled parents. Because lower disability benefits significantly worsen performance of public school aged children on standardized math tests and elevate anxiety symptoms, one plausible pathway from disability benefit levels to PSE attendance may be through the cognitive and non‐cognitive skills children acquire by the age of 15. We conclude that the level of disability transfers available early in a child's life mitigates the impact of having a parent with a disability as a source of inequality of opportunity and of unequal probability of PSE participation. Inégalités des chances et politique publique : conséquences des prestations d'invalidité des parents sur la fréquentation postsecondaire des enfants. En s'appuyant sur l'Enquête longitudinale nationale sur les enfants et les jeunes (ELNEJ) au Canada, cet article tente de déterminer si de meilleures prestations d'invalidité, versées aux parents handicapés entre le cinquième et le quinzième anniversaire de leurs enfants, augmentaient les chances de ces derniers de poursuivre des études postsecondaires en entrant dans l'âge adulte. Nous avons exploité les différences entre les provinces et dans le temps pour évaluer la générosité des programmes régionaux canadiens en matière de prestations d'invalidité, et avons remarqué que plus ces dernières étaient élevées entre 5 et 15 ans, plus les enfants avaient de chance de poursuivre ou d'avoir poursuivi des études postsecondaires entre 19 et 25 ans. L'ampleur de l'effet estimé augmente en fonction de la gravité du handicap parental et du nombre de parents handicapés. Si l'on considère que des prestations d'invalidité plus faibles détériorent significativement les performances des enfants aux tests de mathématiques standardisés dans les écoles publiques tout en aggravant les symptômes d'anxiété, l'un des mécanismes plausibles corrélant le niveau de prestations d'invalidité et la fréquentation postsecondaire pourrait résider dans l'acquisition de compétences cognitives et non‐cognitives avant l'âge de 15 ans. Notre conclusion est que le niveau de prestations d'invalidité offert précocement dans la vie d'un enfant avec un parent handicapé pouvait réduire les inégalités des chances et d'accès aux études postsecondaires.

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  • Kelly Chen & Lars Osberg & Shelley Phipps, 2019. "Unequal opportunities and public policy: The impact of parental disability benefits on child postsecondary attendance," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(4), pages 1401-1432, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:canjec:v:52:y:2019:i:4:p:1401-1432
    DOI: 10.1111/caje.12408
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    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

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