Parental non-response and students' test scores

Using Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) data, we show that parental non-response on a survey is negatively and significantly associated with children's test scores after controlling for the usual determinants of educational achievement. A one-standard-deviation increase in the proportion of parental non-responses decreases their children's scores by an average of 7.2 PISA points. Considering the incidence of non-response, we find that children with parents who had at least one missing or invalid item on the questionnaire scored 11.14 PISA points lower on average than children whose parents answered all of the survey questions. We present parents' personality, in particular conscientiousness, as a prominent candidate to explain our results.