Sources of Inequality at Birth: The Interplay Between Genes and Parental Socioeconomic Status

Pietro Biroli (), Nicolau Martin-Bassols, Andries Marees, Hans van Kippersluis (), Cornelius Rietveld (), Pia Arce, Kevin Thom (), Stephanie von Hinke, Jeremy Vollen and Titus Galama ()
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Pietro Biroli: University of Zurich
Nicolau Martin-Bassols: University of Bologna
Andries Marees: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Hans van Kippersluis: Erasmus University
Cornelius Rietveld: Erasmus University
Pia Arce: University of Zurich
Kevin Thom: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Jeremy Vollen: University of Zurich
Titus Galama: University of Southern California

No 2026-007, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: The start of a human’s life can be characterized by two lotteries: that of your genes (nature) and the family you were born into (nurture). These set in motion a trajectory, from birth onward, in health and human capital. Leveraging three longitudinal socialscience data sets, we systematically analyze the relationship between an individual’s genotype, the socioeconomic status (SES) of the families they grew up in, and their realized traits in adulthood. We proxy an individual’s genetic predisposition by polygenic indexes (PGIs) and family SES by a latent factor of parental education and father’s (former) occupational status. We then investigate how PGIs, parental SES, and their interaction contribute to later-life outcomes across a range of forty-five socioeconomic, anthropometric, health, behavioral, and personality traits. We find strong genetic and socioeconomic associations with these phenotypes, but no evidence of sizable gene-environment interactions.

Keywords: gene-by-environment interplay; genoeconomics; polygenic indices; social sciences genetics; ESSGN (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I00 I14 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-05
Note: ECI, HI
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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Biroli ... rces-inequ-birth.pdf First version, April 2026 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Sources of Inequality at Birth: The Interplay Between Genes and Parental Socioeconomic Status (2026)
Working Paper: Sources of Inequality at Birth: The Interplay Between Genes and Parental Socioeconomic Status (2026)
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