%0 Report %D 2020 %T Genetic Fortune: Winning or Losing Education, Income, and Health %A Kweon, Hyeokmoon %A Burik, Casper %A Richard Karlsson Linnér %A de Vlaming, Ronald %A Okbay, Aysu %A Martschenko, Daphne %A Harden, Kathryn %A DiPrete, Thomas %A Philipp D Koellinger %K Education %K Genetics %K health %K heritability %K Income %K Inequality %K polygenic score %X We study the effects of genetic endowments on inequalities in education, income, and health. Specifically, we conduct the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of individual income, using data from individuals of European ancestries. We find that ≈10% of the variance in occupational wages can be attributed to genetic similarities between individuals who are only very distantly related to each other. Our GWAS (N = 282,963) identifies 45 approximately independent genetic loci for occupational wages, each with a tiny effect size (R 2<0.04%). An aggregated genetic score constructed from these GWAS results accounts for ≈1% of the variance in self-reported income in two independent samples (N = 29,440) and improves upon the variance captured by a genetic score obtained from previous GWAS results for educational attainment. A one-standard-deviation increase in our genetic score for occupational wages is associated with a 6–8% increase in self-reported hourly wages. We exploit random genetic differences between ~35,000 biological siblings to show that (i) roughly half of the covariance between our genetic score and socioeconomic outcomes is causal, (ii) genetic luck for higher income is linked with better health outcomes in late adulthood, and (iii) having a college degree partly mediates this relationship. We also demonstrate that the returns to schooling remain substantial even after controlling for genetic confounds, with an average of 8–11% higher hourly wages for each additional year of education obtained in a US sample. Thus, the implications of genetic endowments are malleable, for example, via policies targeting education. %B Tinbergen Institue Discussion Paper %I Tinbergen Institute %C Amsterdam %G eng %U https://papers.tinbergen.nl/20053.pdf