Kirsten Cornelson

We present new evidence of the correlation of height with important socioeconomic outcomes, finding the height profile is significantly non linear at mean height, especially for males. We trace this non linearity back to the adult height profiles of cognitive scores from the teenage and childhood years. Measures of birthweight and parental height have independent, mediating impacts on the adult height profiles of age 7 cognitive scores. However, the majority of the significant variation of male scores at heights below the average remains within birthweight/parental height cells.

Sports participation is a leading environmental explanation of the male advantage in some spatial skills. We exploit the large increase in females’ high school sports participation due to Title IX to test this hypothesis. We relate Title IX induced increases in females’ sport participation to the spatial content of their occupational employment as captured by Dictionary of Occupational Titles codes, and a test of three dimensional spatial rotation. We find little evidence that this increase in sports participation had an impact on either of these measures.

Published: Michael Baker & Kirsten Cornelson, 2019. "Title IX and the Spatial Content of Female Employment—Out of the Lab and into the Labor Market," Labour Economics, . citation courtesy of

Research on sex differences in humans documents gender differences in sensory, motor and spatial aptitudes. These aptitudes, as captured by Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) codes, predict the occupational choices of men and women in the directions indicated by this research. We simulate that eliminating selection on these skills reduces the Duncan index of gender based occupational segregation by 20-23 percent in 1970 and 2012. Eliminating selection on DOT variables capturing other accounts of this segregation has a smaller impact.

Published: Michael Baker & Kirsten Cornelson, 2018. "Gender-Based Occupational Segregation and Sex Differences in Sensory, Motor, and Spatial Aptitudes," Demography, vol 55(5), pages 1749-1775. citation courtesy of