American Economic Review Vol. 103 No. 2 2013
Testing for Racial Differences in the Mental Ability of Young Children
Abstract
Using a new nationally representative dataset, we find minor differences in test outcomes between black and white infants that disappear with a limited set of controls. However, relative to whites, all other races lose substantial ground by age two. Combining our estimates with results in prior literature, we show that a simple model with assortative mating fits our data well, implying that differences in children's environments between racial groups can fully explain gaps in intelligence. If parental ability influences a child's test scores both genetically and through environment, then our findings are less informative and can be reconciled with a wide range of racial differences in inherited intelligence.
- DOI
- 10.1257/aer.103.2.981
- Volume
- 103
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 981-1005
- Language
- en
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref