摘要：This paper estimates sibling correlations in cognitive and non-cognitive skills to evaluatethe importance of family background for skill formation. Based on a large representativeGerman dataset including IQ test scores and measures of non-cognitive skills, a restrictedmaximum likelihood model indicates substantial influences of family background on skillformation. Sibling correlations in non-cognitive skills range from 0.223 to 0.464; therefore,at least one-fifth of the variance in these skills results from sibling-related factors.Sibling correlations in cognitive skills are higher than 0.50; therefore, more than half of theinequality in cognition can be explained by family background. Comparing these findingswith those in the intergenerational skill transmission literature suggests that intergenerationalcorrelations capture only part of the influence of family on children’s cognitive andnon-cognitive skills, as confirmed by decomposition analyses and in line with previousfindings on educational and income mobility.
关键词：Sibling correlations; family background; non-cognitive skills; cognitive skills; intergenerational;mobility
