ABSTRACT
Many studies on the determinants of children’s education attainment have found that parental background and family income are the most important factors. However, the current research shows the importance of intra-household decision-making on children’s educational attainment. An intense discussion between parents and a child on the best path of education that the child should take, will probably have a future consequence on the child’s educational attainment. This study aims at analysing the impact of children’s involvement in decision-making of their educational attainment. We separate the decision-making of children’s schooling choices into three types: decided by parents, decided by both parents and children, and decided by children. Which type of decision-making, regarding children’s education, has the best outcome for future educational attainment? This study uses two waves of the 2000 and 2007 Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) to examine this issue. Applying econometric estimations, this study confirms that the type of decision-making on children’s schooling choices in 2000 has a significant effect on the future children’s educational choice, and that the schooling choices decided by children has the highest impact on children’s educational attainment compared to the other types of decision-making. This result suggests that parents should listen to their children in deciding their education choice.
