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The Nature and Nurture of Economic Outcomes

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Author Info
Bruce Sacerdote
Abstract

This paper uses data on adopted children to examine the relative importance of biology and environment in determining educational and labor market outcomes. I employ three long-term panel data sets which contain information on adopted children, their adoptive parents, and their biological parents. In at least two of the three data sets, the mechanism for assigning children to adoptive parents is fairly random and does not match children to adoptive parents based on health, race, or ability. I find that adoptive parents' education and income have a modest impact on child test scores but a large impact on college attendance, marital status, and earnings. In contrast with existing work on IQ scores, I do not find that the influence of adoptive parents declines with child age.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 7949.

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Date of creation: Oct 2000
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7949

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General
I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education

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  1. Griliches, Zvi & Mason, William M, 1972. "Education, Income, and Ability," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(3), pages S74-S103, Part II, . [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Ashenfelter, Orley & Krueger, Alan B, 1994. "Estimates of the Economic Returns to Schooling from a New Sample of Twins," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1157-73, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Orley Ashenfelter & Cecilia Rouse, 1998. "Income, Schooling, And Ability: Evidence From A New Sample Of Identical Twins," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(1), pages 253-284, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Yuyu Chen & Hongbin Li, 2006. "Mother's Education and Child Health: Is There a Nurturing Effect?," Discussion Papers 00021, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Erik Plug, 2004. "Estimating the Effect of Mother's Schooling on Children's Schooling Using a Sample of Adoptees," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 358-368, March. [Downloadable!]
  3. Björklund, Anders & Lindahl, Mikael & Plug, Erik, 2004. "Intergenerational Effects in Sweden: What Can We Learn from Adoption Data?," IZA Discussion Papers 1194, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  4. Bruce Sacerdote, 2002. "The Nature and Nurture of Economic Outcomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 344-348, May. [Downloadable!]
  5. Plug, Erik & Wim Vijverberg, 2001. "Schooling, Family Background, and Adoption: Does Family Income Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 246, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  6. Grant Johnston, 2004. "Healthy, wealthy and wise? A review of the wider benefits of education," Treasury Working Paper Series 04/04, New Zealand Treasury. [Downloadable!]
  7. Philip Oreopoulos & Marianne E. Page & Ann Huff Stevens, 2003. "Does Human Capital Transfer from Parent to Child? The Intergenerational Effects of Compulsory Schooling," NBER Working Papers 10164, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Anders Bjorklund & Markus Jantti & Gary Solon, 2007. "Nature and Nurture in the Intergenerational Transmission of Socioeconomic Status: Evidence from Swedish Children and Their Biological and Rearing Parents," NBER Working Papers 12985, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Plug, Erik, 2002. "How Do Parents Raise the Educational Attainment of Future Generations?," IZA Discussion Papers 652, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  10. Lindeboom, Maarten & Lundborg, Petter & van der Klaauw, Bas, 2009. "Obesity and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from the British NCDS," IZA Discussion Papers 4099, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  11. Holmlund, Helena & Lindahl, Mikael & Plug, Erik, 2008. "The Causal Effect of Parent’s Schooling on Children’s Schooling: A Comparison of Estimation Methods," IZA Discussion Papers 3630, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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