The project develops a new method to study the prevalence of Equality of Opportunity across societies and over time, called “the Unique and Shared Family Influences Model” (USFI). The developed method provides ways to approximate what social influences related to family background are shared or unique to each child in a family. Previously existing methods to study intergenerational attainment have ignored the systematic social influences unique to each child in a family. The novel method introduced in the project also provides a more accurate estimate for the overall contribution of social aspects of family background when contrasted with the estimates for genetic influences. The project uses Finnish full population register data as well as twin and sibling data from the US and Germany. The project team will develop statistical add-on packages for other researchers to implement the novel model in their research.

2024

2028