IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dem/wpaper/wp-2020-010.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do income and marriage mediate the relationship between cognitive ability and fertility? Data from Swedish taxation and conscriptions registers for men born 1951-1967

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Kolk

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

  • Kieron J. Barclay

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests a positive association between fertility and cognitive ability among Swedish men. In this study we use data on 18 birth cohorts of Swedish men to examine whether and how the relationship between cognitive ability and patterns of childbearing are mediated by income, education and marriage histories. We examine whether the expected positive associations between cognitive ability and life course income, can explain this positive association. We also explore the role of marriage for understanding the positive gradient between cognitive ability and fertility. To address these question we use Swedish population administrative data that holds information on fertility histories, detailed taxation records, and data from conscription registers. We also identify siblings in order to adjust for confounding by shared family background factors. Our results show that while cognitive ability, education, income, marriage, and fertility, are all positively associated with each other, income only explains a part of the observed positive gradient between fertility and cognitive ability. We find that much of the association between cognitive ability and fertility can be explained by marriage, but that a positive association exists among both ever-married and never-married men. Both low income and low cognitive ability are strong predictors of high childlessness and low fertility in our population. The results from the full population persist in the sub-sample of brothers.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Kolk & Kieron J. Barclay, 2020. "Do income and marriage mediate the relationship between cognitive ability and fertility? Data from Swedish taxation and conscriptions registers for men born 1951-1967," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2020-010, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2020-010
    DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2020-010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2020-010.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2020-010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2010. "Small Family, Smart Family? Family Size and the IQ Scores of Young Men," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(1).
    2. Kieron J. Barclay & Martin Kolk, 2019. "The influence of health in early adulthood on male fertility," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2019-020, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    3. James J. Heckman & Jora Stixrud & Sergio Urzua, 2006. "The Effects of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities on Labor Market Outcomes and Social Behavior," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 411-482, July.
    4. Pedro Carneiro & Claire Crawford & Alissa Goodman, 2007. "The Impact of Early Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills on Later Outcomes," CEE Discussion Papers 0092, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
    5. Marika Jalovaara & Gerda Neyer & Gunnar Andersson & Johan Dahlberg & Lars Dommermuth & Peter Fallesen & Trude Lappegård, 2019. "Education, Gender, and Cohort Fertility in the Nordic Countries," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(3), pages 563-586, July.
    6. Erik Lindqvist & Roine Vestman, 2011. "The Labor Market Returns to Cognitive and Noncognitive Ability: Evidence from the Swedish Enlistment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 101-128, January.
    7. Margarita Chudnovskaya, 2019. "Trends in Childlessness Among Highly Educated Men in Sweden," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(5), pages 939-958, December.
    8. Deborah Freedman & Arland Thornton, 1982. "Income and fertility: The elusive relationship," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 19(1), pages 65-78, February.
    9. Martin Kolk, 2014. "Multigenerational transmission of family size in contemporary Sweden," Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 68(1), pages 111-129, March.
    10. Vegard Skirbekk, 2008. "Fertility trends by social status," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 18(5), pages 145-180.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kolk, Martin & Barclay, Kieron, 2021. "Do income and marriage mediate the relationship between cognitive ability and fertility? Data from Swedish taxation and conscriptions registers for men born 1951–1967," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Jessica Leight & Elaine M. Liu, 2020. "Maternal Education, Parental Investment, and Noncognitive Characteristics in Rural China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(1), pages 213-251.
    3. Briole, Simon & Le Forner, Hélène & Lepinteur, Anthony, 2020. "Children’s socio-emotional skills: Is there a quantity–quality trade-off?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. C. Kirabo Jackson, 2012. "Non-Cognitive Ability, Test Scores, and Teacher Quality: Evidence from 9th Grade Teachers in North Carolina," NBER Working Papers 18624, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Sahn, David E. & Villa, Kira M., 2015. "The Role of Personality, Cognition and Shocks in Determining Age of Entry into Labor Market, Sector of Employment, and within Sector Earnings," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205673, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Edwards, Rebecca & Gibson, Rachael & Harmon, Colm & Schurer, Stefanie, 2022. "First-in-their-family students at university: Can non-cognitive skills compensate for social origin?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    7. Helena Holmlund & Olmo Silva, 2014. "Targeting Noncognitive Skills to Improve Cognitive Outcomes: Evidence from a Remedial Education Intervention," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(2), pages 126-160.
    8. Sandsør, Astrid Marie Jorde, 2020. "Jack-of-all-subjects? The association between individual grade variance and educational attainment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Sahn, David E. & Villa, Kira M., 2016. "Labor Outcomes during the Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood: The Role of Personality, Cognition, and Shocks in Madagascar," IZA Discussion Papers 10359, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Ajayi,Kehinde & Das,Smita & Delavallade,Clara Anne & Ketema,Tigist Assefa & Rouanet,Lea Marie, 2022. "Gender Differences in Socio-Emotional Skills and Economic Outcomes : New Evidencefrom 17 African Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10197, The World Bank.
    11. Pablo Lavado & Jamele Rigolini & Gustavo Yamada, 2015. "Giving Peru a productivity boost : towards a system of continuous education and training," Working Papers 15-16, Centro de Investigación, Universidad del Pacífico.
    12. Ana Luna & Miguel Nuñez-del-Prado & Jose Luján & Luis Mantilla García & Daniel Malca, 2017. "Alternative setup for estimating reliable frequency values in a ripple tank," Working Papers 17-01, Centro de Investigación, Universidad del Pacífico.
    13. Bonacini, Luca & Gallo, Giovanni & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "Sometimes you cannot make it on your own. How household background influences chances of success in Italy," GLO Discussion Paper Series 832, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    14. Piero Esposito & Sergio Scicchitano, 2023. "Drivers of skill mismatch among Italian graduates: the role of personality traits," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(40), pages 4642-4663, August.
    15. Holtmann, Anne Christine & Menze, Laura & Solga, Heike, 2017. "Persistent Disadvantages or New Opportunities? The Role of Agency and Structural Constraints for Low-Achieving Adolescents’ School-to-Work Transitions," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 46(10), pages 2091-2113.
    16. Krishnakumar, Jaya & Nogales, Ricardo, 2020. "Education, skills and a good job: A multidimensional econometric analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    17. Torberg Falch & Ole Henning Nyhus & Bjarne Strøm, 2014. "Performance of Young Adults: The Importance of Different Skills," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 60(2), pages 435-462.
    18. Francis Kramarz & Olof Rosenqvist & Oskar Nordström Skans, 2023. "How family background shapes the relationship between human capital and fertility," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(1), pages 235-262, January.
    19. Lin, Dajun & Lutter, Randall & Ruhm, Christopher J., 2018. "Cognitive performance and labour market outcomes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 121-135.
    20. Silles, Mary A., 2010. "The implications of family size and birth order for test scores and behavioral development," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 795-803, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sweden; cohort fertility; completed fertility; income; intelligence; marriage;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2020-010. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Wilhelm (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.