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Nature-nurture interplay in educational attainment

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  • Dilnoza Muslimova
  • Hans van Kippersluis
  • Cornelius A. Rietveld
  • Stephanie von Hinke
  • S. Fleur W. Meddens

Abstract

This paper shows how nature (i.e., one's genetic endowments) and nurture (i.e., one's environment) interact in producing educational attainment. Genetic endowments are measured using a polygenic score for educational attainment, while we use birth order as an important environmental determinant of educational attainment. Since genetic endowments are randomly assigned within-families and orthogonal to one's birth order, our family fixed effects approach exploits exogenous variation in genetic endowments as well as environments. We find that those with higher genetic endowments benefit disproportionally more from being firstborn compared to those with lower genetic endowments.

Suggested Citation

  • Dilnoza Muslimova & Hans van Kippersluis & Cornelius A. Rietveld & Stephanie von Hinke & S. Fleur W. Meddens, 2020. "Nature-nurture interplay in educational attainment," Papers 2012.05021, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2023.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2012.05021
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    Cited by:

    1. Baker, Samuel & Biroli, Pietro & van Kippersluis, Hans & von Hinke, Stephanie, 2022. "Beyond Barker: Infant Mortality at Birth and Ischaemic Heart Disease in Older Age," IZA Discussion Papers 15291, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Paul Minard, 2022. "Molecular genetics and mid-career economic mobility," Papers 2209.00057, arXiv.org.
    3. Pietro Biroli & Titus Galama & Stephanie von Hinke & Hans van Kippersluis & Kevin Thom, 2022. "Economics and Econometrics of Gene-Environment Interplay," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 22/759, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    4. Pereira, Rita & Biroli, Pietro & von hinke, stephanie & Van Kippersluis, Hans & Galama, Titus & Rietveld, Niels & Thom, Kevin, 2022. "Gene-Environment Interplay in the Social Sciences," OSF Preprints d96z3, Center for Open Science.
    5. von Hinke, Stephanie & Sørensen, Emil N., 2023. "The long-term effects of early-life pollution exposure: Evidence from the London smog," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

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