Correlation within the Family
Correlation within the Family
This chapter explores the correlation between the outcomes of parents and children for a wide range of phenomena. It shows that what Francis Galton discovered for the heights of parents and children applies to outcomes related to anthropometrics and morbidity as well as behavior, psychology, and demography (birth weight, fertility, longevity). It also introduces the concept of “beta,” which measures mean reversion in Galton’s sense and is related to the intergenerational correlation coefficient, and discusses sibling correlations for schooling and earnings. The chapter concludes by looking at correlations among parents, children, and siblings for bad habits such as smoking, drinking, and obesity.
Keywords: parents, children, siblings, outcomes, Francis Galton, anthropometrics, morbidity, psychology, demography, beta
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