@article{4484c2b0c2b64f3287da81448b8c11ad,
title = "What Is Driving the Relationship Between Height and Cognition? Evidence From the Twins Early Development Study",
abstract = "Taller children tend to have better cognitive ability, and the relationship between height and cognition has been proposed as an explanation for the height-wage labor market premium. Height-cognition associations may arise due to social factors that favor taller individuals or be driven by “common factors” that are correlated with height and cognition. Indeed, there is now evidence of a genetic correlation between height and cognition that provides specific evidence for this concern. We examine whether genetic factors explain the relationship by estimating associations between childhood height and cognition in the Twins Early Development Study. We find that height is associated with better cognition even after controlling for genetic and environmental factors shared by twins. The association between height and cognition within fraternal twin pairs is also robust to controlling for individual genetic predictors of height and cognition. These results suggest that genetic factors are not solely responsible for driving the relationship between height and cognition.",
author = "Fletcher, {Jason M} and Vikesh Amin",
note = "Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge the ongoing contribution of the participants in TEDS and their families. TEDS is supported by a program grant from the UK Medical Research Council [ MR/V012878/1 ; and previously 1MR/M021475/1 ], with additional support from the US National Institutes of Health [ AG046903 ]. The research leading to these results has also received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme ( FP7/2007–2013 )/ grant agreement n° 602768 . Vikesh Amin acknowledges research funding from NIH grant number 1R01HD094011-01 . Fletcher acknowledges the use of the facilities of the Center for Demography of Health and Aging at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, funded by NIA Center Grant P30 AG017266 . We thank Petri B{\"o}ckerman for useful comments. Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge the ongoing contribution of the participants in TEDS and their families. TEDS is supported by a program grant from the UK Medical Research Council [MR/V012878/1; and previously 1MR/M021475/1], with additional support from the US National Institutes of Health [AG046903]. The research leading to these results has also received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/ grant agreement n° 602768. Vikesh Amin acknowledges research funding from NIH grant number 1R01HD094011-01. Fletcher acknowledges the use of the facilities of the Center for Demography of Health and Aging at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, funded by NIA Center Grant P30 AG017266. We thank Petri B{\"o}ckerman for useful comments. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors",
year = "2022",
language = "English",
journal = "Economics and Human Biology",
issn = "1570-677X",
publisher = "Economics and Human Biology",
number = "47",
}