Monday 13 August 2012

How important is family background for labor-economic outcomes?

an article by Anders Björklund and Markus Jäntti (Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University) published in Labour Economics Volume 19 Issue 4 (August 2012)

Abstract

This paper uses Swedish register data to examine four classical outcomes in empirical labor economics: IQ, noncognitive skills, years of schooling and long-run earnings.

We estimate sibling correlations – and the variance components that define the sibling correlation – in these outcomes.

We also estimate correlations for MZ-twins, who share all genes.

We also extend the variance-component decomposition by accounting for birth order. We find that conventional intergenerational approaches severely underestimate the role of family background, and that future research should follow a more multidimensional approach to the study of family background.

Highlights

► We estimate sibling correlations in five central labour-economic outcomes.
► These correlations suggest a large role for family background.
► Conventional intergenerational models underestimate the role of family background.
► Future research should find out what siblings share more than parental income.


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