Economists and social scientists have debated the relative importance of nature (one’s genes) and nurture (one’s environment) for decades, if not centuries. This debate can now be informed by the … Read more
The Economics and Econometrics of Gene-Environment Interplay
The Effect of Education on Health and Mortality: A Review of Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Evidence
Education is strongly associated with better health and longer lives. However, the extent to which education causes health and longevity is widely debated. We develop a human capital framework to … Read more
Trends in Absolute Income Mobility in North America and Europe
This paper looks at trends in social mobility in eight wealthy countries and finds significant differences between them. It compares the real incomes of parents and children born between 1960 … Read more
Stop Meta-Analyzing, Start Instrumenting: Maximizing the Predictive Power of Polygenic Scores
Polygenic scores have become the workhorse for empirical analyses in social-science genetics. Because a polygenic score is constructed using the results of finite-sample Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWASs), it is a … Read more
Dynamic complementarity in skill production: Evidence from genetic endowments and birth order
This study looks at how nature and nurture interact in influencing individuals academic attainment, and finds support for the theory that early life parental inputs increase later gains – especially … Read more
The Interplay between Maternal Smoking and Genes in Offspring Birth Weight
This paper looks at the relationships between genes, smoking, and birth weight. It finds that each additional daily cigarette smoked during pregnancy reduces birthweight by between 20 and 40 grams, … Read more