A new study suggests that a father's education and training has more to do with whether his son will make the same amount of money than whether his son inherits his wealth.
The research, based on statistics from Sweden, offers more insight into what economists call "human capital" -- the value of people in terms of work based on their various talents and skills. Economists have wondered how much people's human capital is passed down from generation to generation.
"If your goal is to benefit and increase the income in the next generation, the money spent on increasing training and education in the current generation is more effective than just transferring money to people," said study co-author David Sims, an associate professor of economics at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Connections between the incomes of fathers and daughters, mothers and daughters and mothers and sons are difficult to establish, Sims said, because researchers go back many generations in search of patterns and women then didn't work as much.
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