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

N. Meltem Daysal, Todd Elder, Judith Hellerstein, Scott Imberman and Chiara Orsini

No 28652, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

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.

JEL-codes: I10 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-lma
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Published as N. Meltem Daysal & Todd E. Elder & Judith K. Hellerstein & Scott A. Imberman & Chiara Orsini, 2024. "Parental Skills, Assortative Mating, and the Incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorder," American Journal of Health Economics, vol 10(3), pages 322-356.

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Working Paper: Parental Skills, Assortative Mating, and the Incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (2021)
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