The long-lasting effects of family background: A European cross-country comparison

Content This paper investigates how and to what extent disparities in family socio-economic status (SES) during childhood have long-lasting effects on old-age health, income and cognition. Further, it examines the variability of these effects across 13 European countries using the Survey on Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and SHARELIFE that collect retrospective information on respondents’ family backgrounds during their childhoods. The results confirm the crucial role of family SES during childhood in determining old-age outcomes and show large cross-country variability. Education seems to be the main channel for this gradient and explains most of the estimated cross-country differences. We argue that such a result can be explained with the different efforts of the European countries in promoting full time education.