The Impacts of Household Wealth on Child Development

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examines the influence of wealth relative to income across several child development outcomes using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The wealth measures include net worth and specific asset holdings. The child outcome measures include two cognitive achievement scores and one behavior problem score. Analyses use OLS regression to test whether wealth has explanatory power distinct from income. Results show that wealth is a significant predictor for the applied problem math score and reported behavior problems. Implications and a brief introduction to asset-building programs that focus on children are discussed.