6533b838fe1ef96bd12a4ffd
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Heritability of Lifetime Income
Edvard JohanssonPekka IlmakunnasAri HyytinenOtto Toivanensubject
0303 health sciencesLabour economicsShared environmentbusiness.industry05 social sciences1. No povertyDistribution (economics)Percentage pointVariance (accounting)Heritabilityjel:J31jel:J6203 medical and health sciencesEconomic inequalityjel:I24Income distributionPermanent income hypothesis8. Economic growth0502 economics and businessStatisticsEconomics050207 economicsbusinesspermanent income income uncertainty heritability twins genetics030304 developmental biologydescription
Using 15 years of data on Finnish twins, we find that 24% (54%) of the variance of women’s (men’s) lifetime income is due to genetic factors and that the contribution of the shared environment is negligible. We link these figures to policy by showing that controlling for education reduces the variance share of genetics by 5-8 percentage points; by demonstrating that income uncertainty has a genetic component half the size of its variance share in lifetime income; and by exploring how the genetic heritability of lifetime income is related to the macroeconomic environment, as measured by GDP growth and the Gini-coefficient of income inequality.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-04-01 |