Returns to Education: Evidence from UK Twins

Dorothé Bonjour, Lyn Cherkas, Jonathan E. Haskel (), Denise Hawkes and Tim Spector
Additional contact information
Dorothé Bonjour: Policy Studies Institute, London
Lyn Cherkas: St. Thomas' Hospital, London
Tim Spector: St. Thomas' Hospital, London

No 453, Working Papers from Queen Mary, University of London, Department of Economics

Abstract: We use a new sample of UK female identical twins to estimate private economic returns to education. We report findings in three areas. First, we use identical twins, to control for family effects and genetic ability bias, and the education reported by the other twin to control for schooling measurement error. Our estimates suggest a return to schooling for UK females of about 7.7%. Second, we investigate within-twin pair ability differences by examining within-twin pair and between-family correlations of education with observable correlates of ability (including birthweight, ability tests and reading scores). Our findings suggest lower ability bias in within-twin pair regressions than pooled regressions. Third, using data on twins smoking we show smoking reflects family background and using it as an instrument exacerbates ability bias.

Keywords: Returns to education; Ability bias; Twins; Measurement error; Smoking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
Date: 2002-02

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Related works:
Working Paper: Returns to Education: Evidence from UK Twins (2002)
Working Paper: Returns to Education: Evidence from UK Twins (2002)
Journal Article: Returns to Education: Evidence from U.K. Twins (2003)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:wp453

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