Genes and socioeconomic aggregates

Author

Jason Collins

Published

June 24, 2014

In April, a Conference on Genetics and Behaviour was held by the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group at the University of Chicago.

The first session, with videos linked below, was on Genes and Socioeconomic Aggregates. The video and audio are average at times, and you might want to get the slides (links provided where available) as they are hard to read in the video at times. However, there are some good bits in all of the presentations.

Gregory Cochran: Genetics and Society (slides)

Cochran laid out some ideas that should be in the minds of economists, although he does not focus much attention on selling the ideas. Unfortunately, the questions at the end got derailed by epigenetics (my views approximate Cochran’s). One interesting argument by Cochran is that human environments tend be variable, as, in a Malthusian world, good times (when people breed like mad) tend to be followed by bad (too many people) which tend to be followed by good (people died in the bad). As a result, epigenetic transmission based on the current environment may be a poor strategy.

Enrico Spolaore: Ancestry and the Diffusion of Economic Development: Facts and Questions (slides)

Spolaore touches on his work concerning genetic distance and the diffusion of development (I have posted about it here, here and here). He is extending this work to look at the diffusion of fertility reduction from France (where the demographic transition first occurred), and is getting similar results.

Steven Durlauf: Two Remarks on the Inference of “Macro” Genetic Effects (slides)

I did not get much from Durlauf’s presentation, although some of the questions were interesting. Steve Hsu deflates the “it’s all too hard” message when he points out that animal breeding is now using genetic data.

Henry Harpending: Some Quantitative Genetics Approaches

Harpending discusses his work on how assortative mating can mimic strong selection. I sense this presentation might be difficult to follow if you aren’t familiar with his work. Not much value in the question session, which gets derailed by issues concerning scaling when estimating heritability.

Aldo Rustichini: Determinants of Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility (slides)

A tough presentation to follow - you need to use the slides to have a chance of getting across it - and not recommended for those not mathematically inclined. The highlight is Greg Cochran trying not to jump out of his chair between the 7 and 8 minute mark due to some comments about heritability. Cochran also deflates the idea that there is a high level of false paternity in humans.