Some further evidence against the Trivers Willard hypothesis in homo sapiens

The Trivers Willard hypothesis – that higher maternal quality is associated with a higher sex ratio – is tested using a large population survey from 12 European countries. Several outcomes are studied, the proportion of children born who are male and the sex of the first three children. The principal explanatory variables of interest are mother’s education, marital status and age at birth. Little evidence, if any, of such a relationship is found.sex ratio, maternal quality

Civic returns to education: its effect on homophobia

This paper addresses the question of whether higher levels of education contribute to greater tolerance of homosexuals. Using survey data for Ireland and exploiting a major reform to education, the abolition of fees for secondary schools in 1968, it is shown that increases in education causes individuals to be significantly more tolerant of homosexuals. Ignoring the endogeneity of education leads to much lower estimates of the effect of education. Replicating the model with data for the United Kingdom generates very similar results.education, homophobia, tolerance, social returns

What did abolishing university fees in Ireland do?

University tuition fees for undergraduates were abolished in Ireland in 1996. This paper examines the effect of this reform on the socioeconomic gradient (SES) to determine whether the reform was successful in achieving its objective of promoting educational equality. It finds that the reform clearly did not have that effect. It is also shown that the university/SES gradient can be explained by differential performance at second level which also explains the gap between the sexes. Students from white collar backgrounds do significantly better in their final second level exams than the children of blue-collar workers. The results are very similar to recent findings for the UK. I also find that certain demographic characteristics have large negative effects on school performance i.e. having a disabled or deceased parent. The results show that the effect of SES on school performance is generally stronger for those at the lower end of the conditional distribution of academic attainment.tuition costs, university, fees, socio-economic background, educational attainment

Cognitive ability and hemispheric indecision: two surpluses and a deficit

This paper re-examines a finding by Crow et al. (1998) showing that equal skill of right and left hands – hemispheric indecision - is associated with deficits in cognitive ability. This is consistent with the idea that failure to develop dominance of one hemisphere is associated with various pathologies such as learning difficulties. Using the same data, the British National Child Development Study, we find strong evidence of both surpluses and a deficit associated with this indecision. So no general association between indecision and cognitive ability can be drawn from this data.

The effect of abolishing university tuition costs: evidence from Ireland

University tuition fees for undergraduates were abolished in Ireland in 1996. This paper examines the effect of this reform on the socio-economic gradient to determine whether the reform was successful in achieving its objective of promoting educational equality that is improving the chances of low socio-economic status (SES) students progressing to university. It finds that the reform clearly did not have that effect. It is also shown that the university/SES gradient can be explained by differential performance at second level. Students from white collar backgrounds do significantly better in their final second level exams than the children of blue-collar workers. The results are very similar to recent findings for the UK. The results show that the effect of SES on school performance is generally stronger for those at the lower end of the conditional distribution of academic attainment.

The Effects of Human Capital on Social Capital - A Cross-Country Analysis

This paper uses two sets of cross-country micro datasets to analyse individuals’ participation in voluntary and community activities and organisations. Analysing countries in the International Adult Literacy Survey and focusing on the impact of human capital I find a consistently positive effect of years of education on participation with the marginal effect of an additional year being around 2 or 3% for most countries. The effects are somewhat higher in English speaking countries. However controlling for functional literacy reduces this significantly with literacy accounting for around half the marginal effect of education. Labour market effects are generally very weak Using instrumental variables for a subset of countries we test and are unable to reject the hypothesis that education is exogenous. Using Eurobarometer data yields higher estimated impacts of schooling for most countries. It is also shown how attitudes towards the “third sector” predict higher participation in some forms of volunteering while a measure of religiosity often predicts more altruistic volunteering.

Born to be wild? The Effect of Birth Order, Families and Schools on Truancy

This paper models the probability of 15-year-old children missing school or being late. The paper sets out to uncover the effects of family background and birth order on attendance. Looking at birth order effects allows one to test Sulloway’s “Born to Rebel” hypothesis that older siblings are more compliant than their younger siblings. Using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for Germany, Korea, Ireland, Mexico, Russia and the United States, the evidence here provides little support for the hypothesis in general. The paper finds, somewhat surprisingly, that the socio-economic background of the teenagers has very little effect either. Those from single parent households are however more likely to have poor attendance. However their experience of -or attitude- to school has significant effects as has class size, which is negatively associated with better attendance.truancy, birth order, school, family

Cognitive Ability and Hemispheric Indecision - Two Surpluses and a Deficit

This paper re-examines a finding by Crow et al. (1998) showing that equal skill of right and left hands – hemispheric indecision - is associated with deficits in cognitive ability. This is consistent with the idea that failure to develop dominance of one hemisphere is associated with various pathologies such as learning difficulties. Using the same data, the British National Child Development Study, we find strong evidence of both surpluses and a deficit associated with this indecision. So no general association between indecision and cognitive ability can be drawn from this data.laterality, intelligence, ambidexterity, handedness, cerebral dominance

Big and tall parents do not have more sons

In a 2005 paper Kanezawa proposed a generalisation of the classic Trivers- Willard hypothesis. It was argued that as a result taller and heavier parents should have more sons relative to daughters. Using two British cohort studies, evidence was presented which was partly consistent with the hypothesis. I analyse the relationship between an individual being male and their parents’ height and weight using one of the datasets. No evidence of any such relationship is found.

On a dubious theory of cross-country differences in intelligence

Kanazawa (2007) offers an explanation for the variation across countries of average intelligence. It is based on the idea human intelligence is a domain specific adaptation and that both temperature and the distance from some putative point of origin are proxies for the degree of novelty that humans in a country have experienced. However the argument ignores many other considerations and is a priori weak and the data used questionable. A particular problem is that in calculating distances between countries it implicitly assumes that the earth is flat. This makes all the estimates biased and unreliable.intelligence, measurement error, international comparisons