RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Understanding the Educational Attainment Polygenic Index and its Interactions with SES in Determining Health in Young Adulthood
JF Journal of Human Resources
JO J Hum Resour
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 0521-11685R3
DO 10.3368/jhr.0521-11685R3
A1 Bolyard, Atticus
A1 Savelyev, Peter A.
YR 2025
UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2025/05/05/jhr.0521-11685R3.abstract
AB We investigate the formation of health capital and the role played by genetic endowments, parental socioeconomic status (SES), and education. We find that the Educational Attainment Polygenic Index demonstrates stronger effects on health and health behaviors for subjects with high parental SES. We also show that a strong association between education and health survives controlling not only for detailed traditional controls and cognitive-noncognitive skills, but also for a large set of polygenic indexes that proxy health, skills, and environment, all of which are major expected confounders. This result is suggestive of a causal effect of education on health.