Work

Heritability of education rises with intergenerational mobility

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: As an indicator of educational opportunity, social scientists have studied intergenerational mobility—the degree to which children’s attainment depends on that of their parents—and how it varies across place or time. We combine this research with behavior genetics to show that societal variation in mobility is rooted in family advantages that siblings share over and above genetic transmission. In societies with high intergenerational mobility, less variance in educational attainment is attributable to the shared sibling environment. Variance due to genetic factors is largely constant, but its share as a part of total variance, heritability, rises with mobility. Our results suggest that environmental differences underlie variation in intergenerational mobility, and that there is no tension between egalitarian policies and the realization of individual genetic potential.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1912998116

Authors: Per Engzell, Felix C. Tropf

Institutions: Stockholm University, University of Oxford, Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique, ENSAE Paris

Language: English

Topic: Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $1,070