Parental Skills, Assortative Mating, and the Incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorder

N. Meltem Daysal (), Todd Elder, Judith K. Hellerstein (), Scott Imberman and Chiara Orsini ()
Additional contact information
N. Meltem Daysal: University of Copenhagen
Judith K. Hellerstein: University of Maryland
Chiara Orsini: University of Sheffield

No 14227, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We use rich administrative data from Denmark to assess medical theories that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heritable condition transmitted through underlying parental skills. Positing that occupational choices reflect skills, we create two separate occupation-based skill measures and find that these measures are associated with ASD incidence among children, especially through the father's side. We also assess the empirical relevance of assortative mating based on skill, concluding that intertemporal changes in assortative mating explain little of the increase in ASD diagnoses in recent decades.

Keywords: parental skills; autism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 69 pages
Date: 2021-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-lab
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Published - published in: American Journal of Health Economics, 2024, 10, 322–356

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Related works:
Journal Article: Parental Skills, Assortative Mating, and the Incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (2024)
Working Paper: Parental Skills, Assortative Mating, and the Incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (2021)
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