Microdata Access Grant 2021. Authors: Sjoerd van Alten, Titus Galama (Vrije Universiteit – School of Business and Economics)
Inequality in income and wealth is pervasive and growing in the Netherlands and other developed countries. Research in social science genetics has demonstrated that genes, socioeconomic environmental factors and their interaction each contribute substantially to the determination of socioeconomic outcomes. However, the environmental pathways through which genetic endowments translate into socioeconomic status (SES) are poorly understood. Our proposed study combines measures of genetic endowments in the Dutch Lifelines cohort with high-quality CBS microdata on SES (income, wealth, job type and education), based on administrative records. This uniquely linked dataset allows us to 1) estimate causal genetic effects (by conditioning on the parental genotype), 2) estimate causal environmental effects (by exploring natural experiments), and 3) explore extremely rich measures of SES, in the study of gene-by-environment interplay. Their combination is a first in this literature. Our study will improve understanding of the environmental pathways through which genetic endowments translate into SES.
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