IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hka/wpaper/2025-004.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Nature, nurture, and socioeconomic outcomes: New evidence from sib pairs and molecular genetic data

Author

Listed:
  • Gareth Markel

    (George Mason University)

  • Jonathan Beauchamp

    (George Mason University)

  • Rafael Ahlskog

    (Uppsala University)

  • Joakim Coleman Ebeltoft

    (University of Oslo)

  • René Mõttus

    (Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh)

  • Sven Oskarsson

    (Department of Government)

  • Uku Vainik

    (University of Tartu)

  • Eivind Ystrom

    (University of Oslo)

Abstract

A consequence of Mendel’s First Law is that siblings’ genetic relatedness varies randomly (with a mean of 50% and a standard deviation of ∼4%). We use molecular genetic data to compute the genetic relatedness of ∼80,000 sib pairs. We then compare the pairs’ genetic relatedness to their similarity on 15 outcomes in the cognitive and educational, labor market, risk taking, health, and anthropometric domains, to estimate the relative importance of genetic (i.e., heritability) and family environmental influences on each outcome. We find evidence of sizeable genetic influences on risk tolerance, subjective wellbeing, cognitive performance, height, and BMI, and robust evidence of family environmental influences on educational attainment and labor market outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Gareth Markel & Jonathan Beauchamp & Rafael Ahlskog & Joakim Coleman Ebeltoft & René Mõttus & Sven Oskarsson & Uku Vainik & Eivind Ystrom, 2025. "Nature, nurture, and socioeconomic outcomes: New evidence from sib pairs and molecular genetic data," Working Papers 2025-004, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:hka:wpaper:2025-004
    Note: MIP
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Markel_Beauchamp_Ahlskog_etal_2025_nature-nurture-socioec-outcomes.pdf
    File Function: First version, April 25, 2025
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    heritability; family environment; molecular genetics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hka:wpaper:2025-004. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jennifer Pachon (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mfichus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.