IQ and Family Background: Are Associations Strong or Weak?

Anders Bjorklund, Karin Hederos Eriksson () and Markus Jantti

The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 2010, vol. 10, issue 1, 14

Abstract: For the purpose of understanding the underlying mechanisms behind intergenerational associations in income and education, recent studies have explored the intergenerational transmission of abilities. We use a large representative sample of Swedish men to examine both intergenerational and sibling correlations in IQ. Since siblings share both parental factors and neighbourhood influences, the sibling correlation is a broader measure of the importance of family background than the intergenerational correlation. We use IQ data from the Swedish military enlistment tests. The correlation in IQ between fathers (born 1951-1956) and sons (born 1966-1980) is estimated to 0.347. The corresponding estimate for brothers (born 1951-1968) is 0.473, suggesting that family background explains approximately 50% of a person's IQ. Estimating sibling correlations in IQ, we thus find that family background has a substantially larger impact on IQ than has been indicated by previous studies examining only intergenerational correlations in IQ.

Keywords: IQ; intergenerational mobility; sibling correlation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (59)

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Working Paper: IQ and Family Background: Are Associations Strong or Weak? (2009)
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DOI: 10.2202/1935-1682.2349

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