RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Economic Background and Educational Attainment
JF Journal of Human Resources
JO J Hum Resour
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 263
OP 294
DO 10.3368/jhr.49.2.263
VO 49
IS 2
A1 Thompson, Owen
YR 2014
UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/49/2/263.abstract
AB On average, children from less economically privileged households have lower levels of educational attainment than their higher-income peers, and this association has important implications for intergenerational mobility and equality of opportunity. This paper shows that the income-education association varies greatly across groups of children with different versions of a specific gene, monoamine-oxidase A (MAOA), which impacts neurotransmitter activity. For children with one MAOA variant, increases in household income have the expected positive association with education. For children with another variant, who comprise over half of the population, this relationship is much weaker. These results hold when the interactive effects are identified using genetic variation between full biological siblings, which genetic principles assert is as good as randomly assigned.