A Finnish twin study tracking 20 years of pay finds genetics accounts for roughly 40% of women’s and slightly over 50% of men’s lifetime labor earnings. Shared family environment contributes little, and results hold after adjusting for education and measurement issues.
— This challenges assumptions that family background or schooling alone drive earnings and pushes inequality and mobility debates to grapple with substantial genetic influence.
2025.01.28
85% relevant
This Nature Human Behaviour study identifies 162 income‑associated loci and reports a polygenic index explaining 1–5% of income variance, complementing Finnish twin evidence that genetics accounts for ~40–50% of lifetime earnings and refining the magnitude via molecular methods.
2019.05.14
100% relevant
Finnish twin registry analysis: 'about 40% of the variance of women’s and little more than half of men’s lifetime labour earnings are linked to genetic factors; shared environment negligible.'
← Back to All Ideas