TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Anger, Silke
AU  - Schnitzlein, Daniel D.
        TI  - Cognitive Skills, Non-Cognitive Skills, and Family Background: Evidence from Sibling Correlations
        PY  - 2016/Apr/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 9918
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp9918
        AB  - This paper estimates sibling correlations in cognitive and non-cognitive skills to evaluate the importance of family background for skill formation. Based on a large representative German dataset including IQ test scores and measures of non-cognitive skills, a restricted maximum likelihood model indicates a strong relationship between family background and skill formation. Sibling correlations in non-cognitive skills range from 0.22 to 0.46; therefore, at least one-fifth of the variance in these skills results from shared sibling-related factors. Sibling correlations in cognitive skills are higher than 0.50; therefore, more than half of the inequality in cognition can be explained by shared family background.
Comparing these findings with those in the intergenerational skill transmission literature suggests that intergenerational correlations capture only part of the influence of family on children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills, as confirmed by decomposition analyses and in line with previous findings on educational and income mobility.
        KW  - intergenerational mobility
KW  - cognitive skills
KW  - non-cognitive skills
KW  - family background
KW  - sibling correlations
        ER  -