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Title: Cognitive Ability and the Division of Labor in Urban Ghettos: Evidence from Gang Activity in U.S. Data
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Seals, Richard Alan
Stern, Liliana V.
Cognitive Ability and the Division of Labor in Urban Ghettos: Evidence from Gang Activity in U.S. Data
Journal of Socio-Economics 44 (June 2013): 140-149.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053535712001151
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Cognitive Ability; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Neighborhood Effects; Peers/Peer influence/Peer relations; Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN)

Hernstein and Murray (1994) famously argued that the division of labor in modern society is determined by individual differences in cognitive ability. This paper shows differences in cognitive ability can also determine the division of labor in poor urban areas. I estimate the effect of IQ on time-to-first gang participation with data from NLSY97 and Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). Results from the NLSY97, which account for sibling effects and non-cognitive traits, indicate low-IQ is a robust predictor of gang participation. However in the PHDCN, a person's relative IQ, with respect to one's neighborhood peers, determines gang participation. The sorting of individuals with lower intelligence into gangs may also affect beliefs of non-gang members concerning expected returns to human capital investment. Hence, a variety of social pathologies often associated with inner-city ghettos and low IQs of the inhabitants may instead be caused by an absence of the rule of law.
Bibliography Citation
Seals, Richard Alan and Liliana V. Stern. "Cognitive Ability and the Division of Labor in Urban Ghettos: Evidence from Gang Activity in U.S. Data." Journal of Socio-Economics 44 (June 2013): 140-149.