Mikko Myrskyla - Max Plank Institute
Is later better or worse? Advanced parental ages and offspring IQ, health, and mortality
Date: 09/12/2013 (Thu)
Time: 3:30pm- 5:00pm
Location: Seminar will be held on-site: Gross Hall - 270
Organizer: Seth Sanders
Meeting Schedule: Login or email the organizer to schedule a meeting.
All meetings will be held in the same location as the seminar unless otherwise noted.
- THURSDAY 9/12/2013
8:15am - Jessica Ho (Washington Duke)
9:30am - Angela O'Rand (102 Allen)
10:00am - Joseph Lariscy (Pick up at 102 Allen)
10:30am - Ken Spenner, Soc/psych 259
11:00am - Bryce Bartlett (Pick-up a 259, walk to Gross Hall 262)
12:00pm - Lunch: Amar Hamoudi (Pick Up at Gross Hall 262);
1:00pm - DuPRI students: Nick Ingwersen, Pohlin Tan, Maria Laurito GH262
1:45pm - Elizabeth Frankenberg
2:15pm - Giovanna Merli
2:45pm - Linda George
3:15pm - Prepare for seminar
3:30pm - Seminar Presentation (3:30pm to 5:00pm)
6:00pm - Dinner: Mikko Myrskyla, Lynn Smith-Lovin, Seth Sanders, Thavolia Glymph (Piedmont)
- FRIDAY 9/14/2013
8:30am - Breakfast: Seth Sanders
Additional Comments: ABSTRACT: Advanced parental ages are associated with a range of negative outcomes for the adult offspring, such as decreased health, cognitive ability, and life expectancy. The interpretation of these associations often relies on parental reproductive ageing. We use large population-based samples from the U.S. and Sweden to analyze how alternative mechanisms – social selection, age at which the children lose their parents and improving macro conditions – influence the link between parental ages and offspring outcomes. Consistent with prior work, we find that children born to mothers or fathers aged 35 years or above have worse IQ, health, and mortality outcomes than those born to parents aged 25-34 years. These associations are to large extent explained by observed and unobserved parental characteristics and by early parental loss, though for some outcomes small negative effects remain net of these controls. However, these negative effects are more than offset by improving macro conditions: comparison of siblings reveals that due to secular positive trends in health over cohorts, postponing parenthood up to advanced ages results in taller children who score higher in cognitive ability tests and have a decreased risk of death, despite the negative parental age effects.