Cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, and family background: Evidence from sibling correlations

This paper estimates sibling correlations in cognitive and non-cognitive skills to evaluate the importance of family background for skill formation. Based on a large representative German dataset including IQ test scores and measures of non-cognitive skills, a restricted maximum likelihood model ind...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of population economics 2017-02, Vol.30 (2), p.591-620
Main Authors: Anger, Silke, Schnitzlein, Daniel D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Auswirkung
Bildung
Bildungschance
Bildungsmobilität
Chancengleichheit
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive ability
Demography
Economics
Economics and Finance
Education
Equality
Generation
Influence
Intelligenz (Psy)
Kognitive Kompetenz
Labor Economics
Labor market
Mobilität
Neighborhoods
ORIGINAL PAPER
Parents & parenting
Personality traits
Persönlichkeitsmerkmal
Population Economics
Qualifikationsentwicklung
Qualifikationserwerb
Reziprozität
Selbstverantwortung
Skills
Social Policy
Soziale Herkunft
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Summary:This paper estimates sibling correlations in cognitive and non-cognitive skills to evaluate the importance of family background for skill formation. Based on a large representative German dataset including IQ test scores and measures of non-cognitive skills, a restricted maximum likelihood model indicates a strong relationship between family background and skill formation. Sibling correlations in non-cognitive skills range from 0.22 to 0.46; therefore, at least one-fifth of the variance in these skills results from shared sibling-related factors. Sibling correlations in cognitive skills are higher than 0.50; therefore, more than half of the inequality in cognition can be explained by shared family background. Comparing these findings with those in the intergenerational skill transmission literature suggests that intergenerational correlations capture only part of the influence of family on children’s cognitive and non-cognitive skills, as confirmed by decomposition analyses and in line with previous findings on educational and income mobility.
ISSN:0176-1714
0933-1433
1432-1475
1432-1475
DOI:10.1007/s00148-016-0625-9