DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MONOZYGOTIC AND DIZYGOTIC TWINS IN THE LABOUR MARKET

Adelaide Agyeman () and Nicholas Nicodamus Nana Nsowah-Nuamah ()
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Adelaide Agyeman: Research Scientist, Crops Research Institute, Kumasi-Ghana, Biometrics Unit
Nicholas Nicodamus Nana Nsowah-Nuamah: – Rector, Professor, Kumasi Polytechnic, Kumasi-Ghana

Journal of Social and Economic Statistics, 2015, vol. 4, issue 2, 19-41

Abstract: The paper accurately determines zygosity in a twins’ data set, presents a fairly detailed demographic and socio-economic profile of monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins in the Ghanaian labour market and provides evidence of the similarities and differences between MZ and DZ twins. Predictive discriminant analysis is used to classify twins into MZ and DZ groups and descriptive analysis is performed to observe and explore patterns and relationships between sociodemographic variables. The discriminant analysis revealed that 99.2% of the twins were classified correctly into MZ and DZ twins groups. The descriptive analysis indicated that female twins slightly outnumber male twins and the sample of twins was largely youthful. It was also observed that more than half of the twins had completed only elementary schooling. However, MZ twins had higher educational attainment and higher earnings than DZ twins. The association between the educational levels and annual earnings of MZ twins were also found to be greater than that of DZ twins. The findings suggest that genes and environment play a major role in identifying similarities and differences in the socio-demographic characteristics of individuals in the workforce.

Keywords: Socio-demographic; Twins; Genetic; Environment; labour market (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C19 J01 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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