Order Matters: Eliciting Maternal Beliefs on Educational Choices
Abstract
Subjective expectation data on education has been increasingly used by social scientists
to better understand current investments in human capital. Despite its recognised
value by scholars, there is little evidence about how the elicitation of such data
might be sensitive to questionnaire design. Using a 2x2 between-subjects experimental
design, we analyse how sensitive the elicitation of subjective expectation data on
educational outcomes is to question order. Our study provides causal evidence on
whether collecting data on parental education before the elicitation of parental beliefs
on their children’s educational outcomes anchors the elicitation of the latter; and
whether parental expectations on their older offsprings anchors their expectations on
their younger children. We find that mothers (main respondents) who have been exposed
to the non-anchored treatment results in more optimistic parental expectations.
When splitting our sample into households with low and high educated mothers, we
observe that low educated mothers are more susceptible to anchoring effects. Our
findings inform to what extent the collection of subjective expectations data is subject
to anchoring and which type of populations might be more sensitive to such phenomenon. Subjective expectation data on education has been increasingly used by social scientists
to better understand current investments in human capital. Despite its recognised
value by scholars, there is little evidence about how the elicitation of such data
might be sensitive to questionnaire design. Using a 2x2 between-subjects experimental
design, we analyse how sensitive the elicitation of subjective expectation data on
educational outcomes is to question order. Our study provides causal evidence on
whether collecting data on parental education before the elicitation of parental beliefs
on their children’s educational outcomes anchors the elicitation of the latter; and
whether parental expectations on their older offsprings anchors their expectations on
their younger children. We find that mothers (main respondents) who have been exposed
to the non-anchored treatment results in more optimistic parental expectations.
When splitting our sample into households with low and high educated mothers, we
observe that low educated mothers are more susceptible to anchoring effects. Our
findings inform to what extent the collection of subjective expectations data is subject
to anchoring and which type of populations might be more sensitive to such phenomenon.
Order Matters: Eliciting Maternal Beliefs on Educational Choices
Palabras Clave
subjective expectations, educational expectations, education