Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/272425 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15798
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We here address the causal relationship between the maternal genetic risk for depression and child human capital using UK birth-cohort data. We find that an increase of one standard deviation (SD) in the maternal polygenic risk score for depression reduces their children's cognitive and non-cognitive skill scores by 5 to 7% of a SD throughout adolescence. Our results are robust to a battery of sensitivity tests addressing, among others, concerns about pleiotropy and dynastic effects. Our Gelbach decomposition analysis suggests that the strongest mediator is genetic nurture (through maternal depression itself), with genetic inheritance playing only a marginal role.
Subjects: 
maternal depression
human capital
ALSPAC
JEL: 
I14
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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