Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/305697 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 17255
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Using two polygenic scores (PGS) for educational attainment in a biomedical study of all those born in a single week in Great Britain in 1958 we show that the genetic predisposition for educational attainment is associated with labour market participation and wages over the life- course for men and women. Those with a higher PGS spend more time in employment and full-time employment and, when in employment, earn higher hourly wages. The employment associations are more pronounced for women than for men. Conditional on employment, the PGS wage associations are sizeable, persistent and similar for men and women between ages 33 and 55. A one standard deviation increase in the PGS is associated with a 6-10 log point increase in hourly earnings. However, whereas a 1 standard deviation increase in the PGS at age 23 raises women's earnings by around 5 log points, it is not statistically significant among men. These associations are robust to non-random selection into employment and to controls for parental education. Our results suggest that genetic endowments of a cohort born a half century ago continued to play a significant role in their fortunes in the labor market of the 21st Century.
Subjects: 
gender wage gap
employment
educational attainment
polygenic score
National Child Development Study
JEL: 
I26
J31
J16
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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