nature v. nurture

Greg Mankiw blogs about the nature-nurture debate using a previously written research paper and another working paper that was recently released. Personally, I loved thinking that anyone could nurture a child into a new life, but I may not be as right as I thought I was. As Mankiw states,

“In both papers, nature is stronger than nurture for determining the educational attainment of adopted children, although both nature and nurture have some role. And in both papers, nature completely dominates over nurture for determining income.”

Well, even though I’m not adopted, I’m scared to death that my parents weren’t college graduates. Hopefully this means that if I have a child, he/she will be better off than I or my parents. Unless, of course, I adopt them.