Sibling Differences in Genetic Propensity for Education: How do Parents React?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Sanz-de-Galdeano, Anna; Terskaya, Anastasia
• 署名单位: Universitat d'Alacant; IZA Institute Labor Economics; University of Barcelona
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01326
• 发表日期: 2025-09
• 页码: 1356-1370
• 关键词: intrahousehold resource-allocation; fetal origins; birth-order; HEALTH; investments; endowments; INEQUALITY; FAMILY; preferences; TECHNOLOGY

摘要

We take advantage of recent advances in genomics to revisit a classic question in economics: how do parents respond to children's endowments and to sibling differences in endowments? We use an index based on DNA, which is fixed at conception and assigned randomly across siblings, as a proxy for educational endowments. We find that parents of nontwins display inequality aversion: given the absolute endowment level of one child, they invest less in him/her if his/her sibling has a lower genetic predisposition to education. In contrast, we find no evidence that parents of dizygotic twins react to endowment differences between children.