Archive for April, 2016

Men who have children make more money and live longer–correlation or causation?

Hey guys, if you want to make more money and live longer, have kids.  Anyways that seems to be the gist of two studies reported this month, at least from my perspective as a father of five.  Here is the scoop:

  • “Men in the top 1 percent distribution level live about 15 years longer than men in the bottom 1 percent on the income distribution in the United States.” – Raj Chetty, professor of economics at Stanford University, quoted in this report by NPR on an article in The Journal of American Medical Association on “The Association Between Income and Life Expectancy in the United States, 2001-2014” he lead-authored.
  • Working fathers enjoy 21% ‘wage bonus’ over childless colleagues according to a study by United Kingdom’s Trades Union Congress reported here

Before you run off madly making babies, that correlation may not be causation.  For example, as reported in this expose by Slate, statistics indicate that eating ice cream turns people into killers.  Could that really be the scoop?

Correlation

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