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.
Highlights
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
Our results indicate that social mobility is improved by reducing social inheritance, a process that brings genetic influences to the fore
Critics have seen political attempts to increase mobility as either inadequate [13] or futile, adding the assumption that inheritance is largely genetic in origin [14]
Summary
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. Insofar as genetic factors capture relevant abilities, their influence is consistent with meritocratic norms [5,6,7] Such norms can be motivated on grounds of efficiency, as a society’s viability depends on its ability to attract competent leaders and innovators [8, 9]. By comparing outcomes for family members with varying degree of genetic resemblance— typically, twins—we can partition variance in an outcome to that attributable to genetic factors (heritability, h2), shared sibling environment (c2), and idiosyncratic factors (e2) [11]. While such studies potentially tell us much about the distribution of opportunities, societal comparison has rarely been central to them. We ask: Where intergenerational mobility is higher, does the balance of “nature” and “nurture” in educational attainment differ?
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