My Father's Day Essay for the WSJ, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Bryan's Father's Day Essay for the WSJ, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

I kinda like Jason's comment:

A bigger problem, I think, is that behavior genetics currently answers questions too crudely to be helpful to parents.

Can't parents who drop $100,000+ on a high status college education expect better outcomes for their children than parents who don't provide this opportunity? Logically, you would think that parents who provide costly opportunities would be dramatically affecting their child outcomes. But behavior genetic studies suggest that parental socioeconomic status doesn't do much.

Why not?

Is it because the poor parents are spending proportionately more on opportunities than rich parents? Or is it because children somehow compensate in proportion to their own abilities (e.g. making due with student loans)? Or is it because the supposed advantages of fancy colleges are a spurious reflection of student ability (consistent with Dale and Krueger)?

Behavior genetics doesn't yet help distinguish between explanations like the first and third AFAIK. But if parents take the research to indicate something like the third explanation, when the true explanation is the first, the consequences of that misinterpretation could be severe.

and:

By the way, this is one problem I potentially have with Dr. Caplan's new book. He is advocating the idea that behavior genetics indicates parents can invest less in their children without consequences. While I do suspect this is true, the same research could conceivably be indicating the opposite. Which would mean that Dr. Caplan's suggestions could be harmful.

I worry the money investment less. I probably gonna support my kids the best I can afford and the best they can get into. The implication in Bryan's essay that the education is less important than the gene, so parents can skip the nightly reading without feeling guilty troubles me more. Education is one of the most important part of raising the kid. I don't need statistics to tell what a nightly reading can do. I can see it, and I love it.

I'd like to see the original research, but I am still in doubt.