| By: |
Martin Kolk (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany);
Kieron J. Barclay (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: |
Recent evidence suggests a positive association between fertility and
cognitive ability among Swedish men. In this study we use data on 18 birth
cohorts of Swedish men to examine whether and how the relationship between
cognitive ability and patterns of childbearing are mediated by income,
education and marriage histories. We examine whether the expected positive
associations between cognitive ability and life course income, can explain
this positive association. We also explore the role of marriage for
understanding the positive gradient between cognitive ability and fertility.
To address these question we use Swedish population administrative data that
holds information on fertility histories, detailed taxation records, and data
from conscription registers. We also identify siblings in order to adjust for
confounding by shared family background factors. Our results show that while
cognitive ability, education, income, marriage, and fertility, are all
positively associated with each other, income only explains a part of the
observed positive gradient between fertility and cognitive ability. We find
that much of the association between cognitive ability and fertility can be
explained by marriage, but that a positive association exists among both
ever-married and never-married men. Both low income and low cognitive ability
are strong predictors of high childlessness and low fertility in our
population. The results from the full population persist in the sub-sample of
brothers. |
| Keywords: |
Sweden, cohort fertility, completed fertility, income, intelligence, marriage |
| JEL: |
J1 Z0 |
| Date: |
2020 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2020-010&r=all |