Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/172235 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
Upjohn Institute Working Paper No. 17-273
Publisher: 
W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Kalamazoo, MI
Abstract: 
Recent advances have led to the discovery of specific genetic variants that predict educational attainment. We study how these variants, summarized as a genetic score variable, are associated with human capital accumulation and labor market outcomes in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). We demonstrate that the same genetic score that predicts education is also associated with higher wages, but only among individuals with a college education. Moreover, the genetic gradient in wages has grown in more recent birth cohorts, consistent with interactions between technological change and labor market ability. We also show that individuals who grew up in economically disadvantaged households are less likely to go to college when compared to individuals with the same genetic score, but from higher socioeconomic status households. Our findings provide support for the idea that childhood socioeconomic status is an important moderator of the economic returns to genetic endowments. Moreover, the finding that childhood poverty limits the educational attainment of high-ability individuals suggests the existence of unrealized human potential.
Subjects: 
Human capital
inequality
education
genes
JEL: 
I24
J24
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
1.08 MB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.