The causal effect of genetic variants linked to cognitive and non-cognitive skills on education and labor market outcomes

IF 2.2 2区经济学 Q2 ECONOMICS

Labour Economics Pub Date : 2024-04-23 DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102544

Thomas Buser , Rafael Ahlskog , Magnus Johannesson , Philipp Koellinger , Sven Oskarsson

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

We estimate the effect of genetic variants that are associated with differences in cognitive and non-cognitive skills on labor market and education outcomes by linking genetic data from individuals in the Swedish Twin Registry to government registry data. Genes are fixed over the life cycle and genetic differences between full siblings are random, making it possible to establish the causal effects of within-family genetic variation. We show that polygenic indices associated with cognitive skills and personality traits significantly affect income, occupation, and educational attainment. By comparing estimates that use only within-family variation to OLS estimates with and without socioeconomic controls, our results also provide indications of the degree of (residual) confounding, which can be useful for research conducted in datasets that do not contain sibling pairs. Overall, our results indicate that education and labor market outcomes are partially the result of a genetic lottery.

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与认知和非认知技能相关的基因变异对教育和劳动力市场结果的因果效应

我们通过将瑞典双胞胎登记处的个人基因数据与政府登记数据联系起来，估算了与认知和非认知技能差异相关的基因变异对劳动力市场和教育结果的影响。在整个生命周期中，基因是固定的，而同胞兄弟姐妹之间的基因差异是随机的，因此可以确定家庭内部基因变异的因果效应。我们的研究表明，与认知技能和个性特征相关的多基因指数对收入、职业和教育程度有显著影响。通过将仅使用家庭内部变异的估计值与带或不带社会经济控制的 OLS 估计值进行比较，我们的结果还提供了（残余）混杂程度的指标，这对于在不包含兄弟姐妹对的数据集中进行的研究非常有用。总之，我们的结果表明，教育和劳动力市场的结果部分是遗传抽签的结果。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Labour Economics ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

3.60

自引率

8.30%

发文量

142

期刊介绍： Labour Economics is devoted to publishing research in the field of labour economics both on the microeconomic and on the macroeconomic level, in a balanced mix of theory, empirical testing and policy applications. It gives due recognition to analysis and explanation of institutional arrangements of national labour markets and the impact of these institutions on labour market outcomes.