GENETIC VARIATION IN PREFERENCES FOR GIVING AND RISK TAKING

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cesarini, David; Dawes, Christopher T.; Johannesson, Magnus; Lichtenstein, Paul; Wallace, Bjoern
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); University of California System; University of California San Diego; Stockholm School of Economics; Karolinska Institutet
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1162/qjec.2009.124.2.809
• 发表日期: 2009
• 页码: 809-842
• 关键词: human psychological differences; VARIANCE-COMPONENTS ANALYSIS; CLASSICAL TWIN DESIGN; MIXED MODELS GLMMS; environmental-influences; individual-differences; SOCIAL-ATTITUDES; Dictator games; heritability; FAMILY

摘要

In this paper, we use the classical twin design to provide estimates of genetic and environmental influences on experimentally elicited preferences for risk and giving. Using standard methods from behavior genetics, we find strong prima facie evidence that these preferences are broadly heritable and our estimates suggest that genetic differences explain approximately twenty percent of individual variation. The results thus shed light on an important source of individual variation in preferences, a source that has hitherto been largely neglected in the economics literature.