On the Origins of Socioeconomic Inequalities: Evidence from Twin Families

Paul Bingley, Lorenzo Cappellari and Konstantinos Tatsiramos

No 2024-03, LISER Working Paper Series from Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)

Abstract: Using Danish Twins Registry and population data, we link twins with their relatives to evaluate the controversial assumptions of the classic twin model and decompose socioeconomic inequality into genetic (heritability) and environmental factors. We reject the equal environments assumption, finding that the classic model overestimates heritability. Heritability explains 9% of variation in education and 14-16% in earnings, income, and wealth, helping to fill the ‘missing heritability’ gap between the classic twin model and Genome-Wide Association Studies. Shared environments account for 26-42% of these variances and 45-81% of intergenerational persistence. These findings reconcile estimates from twin and adoptee studies.

Keywords: nature; nurture; family background; genes; environment inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 E21 E24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2024-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem
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Working Paper: On the Origins of Socio-Economic Inequalities: Evidence from Twin Families (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:irs:cepswp:2024-03

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