Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/180562 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11544
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper explores gene-environmental interactions between family environments and children's genetic scores in determining educational attainment. The central question is whether poor childhood family environments reduce the ability for children to leverage their genetic gifts to achieve high levels of educational attainments. The multigenerational information and genetic data contained in the Health and Retirement Study is used to separate two mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status – genetic endowments and family environments. Using parental in utero exposure to the 1918/1919 influenza pandemic as a source of quasi-experimental variation to family environments (but not affecting children's genetic endowments), this paper estimates interactions between parental investments and children's genetic potential. The main finding suggests that girls with high genetic potential whose fathers were exposed to influenza face reduced educational attainments – a gene-environment interaction – but there is no similar effect for boys.
Subjects: 
in utero exposure
gene-environment interactions
polygenic score
intergenerational effects
JEL: 
J62
J1
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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