Nature versus Nurture in Longevity

Avi Simhon
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Avi Simhon: The Hebrew University

No 122, 2010 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: This paper estimates the contribution of nature and nurture to the variance of longevity in a cross section of individuals. Our approach differs from that used in the genetics and biological literature in that we develop a simple model of longevity determination and use it to bound the contribution of nature to longevity. Using estimates of the key model parameters available in the demographic and genetics literature as well as our own estimate of the genetic transmission parameter (based on a new longevity dataset), we find that genetic factors (nature) cannot explain more than 32 percent of the cross-sectional variance in longevity. Our estimates also imply a weak intergenerational transmission of environmental factors. As a consequence, most of the variance in longevity is due to the variance of non-inherited environmental factors.

Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:red:sed010:122

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