Parenting style and the development of human capital in children

There is little consensus among social science researchers about the effectiveness of alternative parenting strategies in producing desirable child outcomes. Some argue that parents should set strict limits on the activities of their adolescent children, while others believe that adolescents should be given relatively wide discretion. In this dissertation, I develop and estimate a model of parent-child interaction in order to better understand the relationship between parenting styles and the development of human capital in children. Using data from the NLSY97, the estimates of the model indicate that the best parenting style depends on how much a child values human capital. Setting strict rules increases the study time of a child who places a low value on human capital, but decreases study time for a child who places a high value on human capital. According to the estimates, the impact of a public mandatory curfew, given these offsetting effects, is to increase slightly adolescent human capital.