Working Paper: NBER ID: w10894
Authors: Bruce Sacerdote
Abstract: I use a new data set of Korean-American adoptees who, as infants, were randomly assigned to families in the U.S. I examine the treatment effects from being assigned to a high income family, a high education family or a family with four or more children. I calculate the transmission of income, education and health characteristics from adoptive parents to adoptees. I then compare these coefficients of transmission to the analogous coefficients for biological children in the same families, and to children raised by their biological parents in other data sets. Having a college educated mother increases an adoptee's probability of graduating from college by 7 percentage points, but raises a biological child's probability of graduating from college by 26 percentage points. In contrast, transmission of drinking and smoking behavior from parents to children is as strong for adoptees as for non-adoptees. For height, obesity, and income, transmission coefficients are significantly higher for non-adoptees than for adoptees. In this sample, sibling gender composition does not appear to affect adoptee outcomes nor does the mix of adoptee siblings versus biological siblings.
Keywords: adoption; socioeconomic status; educational outcomes; health behaviors
JEL Codes: J0; I2
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Having a college-educated mother (I24) | Adoptee's probability of graduating from college (I21) |
| Growing up in a larger family (four or more children) (J12) | Adoptee's probability of attending college (I23) |
| Parental influence on drinking and smoking behavior (C92) | Adoptees and nonadoptees (J13) |
| Transmission coefficients for height, obesity, and income (I14) | Nonadoptees compared to adoptees (J13) |