Proven: Boys Who Grew Up With Books Earn More as Adults

Children who were surrounded by books have a greater chance of earning more as adults, according to research by economists at the University of Padua, reports the British Mirror, as relayed by the Patria News Agency.

The respondents were 6,000 men in 9 different European countries between 1020 and 1956. The research considered whether children aged 10 and over lived in homes with fewer than 10 books, one bookshelf, a library with up to 100 volumes, two libraries, or more than two libraries.

Their findings, published in the Economic Journal, showed that just one additional year of education could increase a man's earnings by about 9%.

Several theories were presented to explain the results.

- It is possible that books are important because they encourage children to read more, and reading can have positive effects on school success. Conversely, a house full of books is an indicator of advanced socio-economic conditions, the study suggests.

- A large portion of Europeans aged 50+ grew up in households with less than one shelf of (non-school) books. The return to education for individuals from such homes is much rarer than for those who had direct access to books, claims author Guglielmo Weber.

In this sense, we can only say that books are like diamonds – forever, reports the British Mirror.