Abstract

https://ssrn.com/abstract=1439158
 
 

References (17)



 
 

Citations (9)



 


 



IQ and Family Background: Are Associations Strong or Weak?


Anders Bjorklund


Stockholm University; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Karin Hederos Eriksson


Stockholm University

Markus Jantti


Abo Akademi University


IZA Discussion Paper No. 4305

Abstract:     
For the purpose of understanding the underlying mechanisms behind intergenerational associations in income and education, recent studies have explored the intergenerational transmission of abilities. We use a large representative sample of Swedish men to examine both intergenerational and sibling correlations in IQ. Since siblings share both parental factors and neighbourhood influences, the sibling correlation is a broader measure of the importance of family background than the intergenerational correlation. We use IQ data from the Swedish military enlistment tests. The correlation in IQ between fathers (born 1951-1956) and sons (born 1966-1980) is estimated to 0.347. The corresponding estimate for brothers (born 1951-1968) is 0.473, suggesting that family background explains approximately 50% of a person's IQ. Estimating sibling correlations in IQ we thus find that family background has a substantially larger impact on IQ than has been indicated by previous studies examining only intergenerational correlations in IQ.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 12

Keywords: ability, intergenerational mobility, family background

JEL Classification: J0, I0, J1


Open PDF in Browser Download This Paper

Date posted: July 28, 2009  

Suggested Citation

Bjorklund, Anders and Hederos Eriksson, Karin and Jantti, Markus, IQ and Family Background: Are Associations Strong or Weak?. IZA Discussion Paper No. 4305. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1439158

Contact Information

Anders Bjorklund (Contact Author)
Stockholm University ( email )
Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI)
S-106 91 Stockholm
Sweden
+46 8 163452 (Phone)
+46 8 154670 (Fax)
IZA Institute of Labor Economics
P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Karin Hederos Eriksson
Stockholm University ( email )
Universitetsvägen 10
Stockholm, Stockholm SE-106 91
Sweden
Markus Jantti
Abo Akademi University ( email )
Domkyrkotorget 3
FI-20500 TURKU
Finland
HOME PAGE: http://www.abo.fi/~mjantti/
Feedback to SSRN


Paper statistics
Abstract Views: 1,183
Downloads: 120
Download Rank: 183,016
References:  17
Citations:  9