Understanding the Educational Attainment Polygenic Index and its Interactions with SES in Determining Health in Young Adulthood

89 Pages Posted: 14 Jun 2019 Last revised: 20 Dec 2023

See all articles by Atticus Bolyard

Atticus Bolyard

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Peter A. Savelyev

Virginia Commonwealth University - School of Business - Department of Economics

Date Written: November 17, 2023

Abstract

Based on the sample of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we investigate the formation of health capital and the role played by genetic endowments, parental SES, and education. To measure genetic endowments we take advantage of the new availability of quality polygenic indexes (PGIs), which are optimally-weighted summaries of individual molecular genetic data. Our main focus is on the Educational Attainment Polygenic Index (EA PGI), which is designed to predict the highest level of education achieved in life. We find that the EA PGI demonstrates stronger effects on health and health behaviors for subjects with high parental socioeconomic status (SES). These effects are only partially explained by education as a mechanism. We provide suggestive evidence for the mechanisms behind estimated relationships, including early health, skills, and the parents' and child's own attitudes towards education, as well as outcomes related to occupation and wealth. We also show that a strong association between education and health-related outcomes survives controlling for a large set of PGIs that predict health and education, with only a modest reduction in regression coefficients despite controlling for major expected confounders. This result informs the ongoing debate about the causal relationship between education and health and the mechanisms behind this relationship.

Keywords: Health, health behaviors, Polygenic Index (PGI), Polygenic Score (PGS), Educational Attainment, parental socioeconomic status (SES), child development, education, mediators, Add Health data

JEL Classification: I12, I14, I24, J24

Suggested Citation

Bolyard, Atticus and Savelyev, Peter A., Understanding the Educational Attainment Polygenic Index and its Interactions with SES in Determining Health in Young Adulthood (November 17, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3397735 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3397735

Atticus Bolyard

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Peter A. Savelyev (Contact Author)

Virginia Commonwealth University - School of Business - Department of Economics ( email )

Box 844000
Richmond, VA 23284-4000
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.petersavelyev.com/

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