The gender wage gap across life: Effects of genetic predisposition towards higher educational attainment

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 four times larger for women than for men. Conditional on employment, the PGS wage associations are sizeable, persistent and similar for men and women through to age 55. A one standard deviation increase in the PGS is associated with a 5–10 log point increase in hourly earnings. The size of the association is a little smaller for men aged 23. These associations are robust to non-random selection into employment and to controls for parental education. Between one-quarter and one-half of the PGS association with time in employment, and one-third to one-half of the PGS association with earnings, are mediated via educational attainment. 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.