TY  - JOUR
AU  - Sacerdote,Bruce
TI  - The Nature and Nurture of Economic Outcomes
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7949
PY  - 2000
Y2  - October 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7949
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7949.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Bruce Sacerdote
6106 Rockefeller Hall
Department of Economics
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755-3514
Tel: 603/646-2121
Fax: 603/646-2122
E-Mail: Bruce.I.Sacerdote@dartmouth.edu
AB  - This paper uses data on adopted children to examine the relative importance of biology and environment in determining educational and labor market outcomes.  I employ three long-term panel data sets which contain information on adopted children, their adoptive parents, and their biological parents.  In at least two of the three data sets, the mechanism for assigning children to adoptive parents is fairly random and does not match children to adoptive parents based on health, race, or ability.  I find that adoptive parents' education and income have a modest impact on child test scores but a large impact on college attendance, marital status, and earnings.  In contrast with existing work on IQ scores, I do not find that the influence of adoptive parents declines with child age.
ER  -