Genetic and Economic Interaction in the Formation of Human Capital: The Case of Obesity
Abstract:
Small ge netic differences at birth confer a comparative advantage in health and hum an capital formation, and can lead to substantial inequality in long term s ocial and economic outcomes. I develop a structural model of health and hum an capital formation illustrating the dynamic interaction between genetic i nheritance and investments in health over the life cycle. Genetic heterogen eity across individuals can change the utility cost of investments and the production function of health, shifting the incentives to invest in healthy habits. Focusing on Body-Mass-Index (BMI) as a measure of poor health, I c onsider physical activity and food intake as investments in health, and I e valuate their interaction with specific variants in FTO and other genes ass ociated with BMI in Genome-Wide Association Studies. Applying this model to two different datasets, one of British adolescents and one of US adults, I find that Gene-Environment interaction plays a pivotal role in the evoluti on of BMI. Food intake has a stronger impact on BMI for those individuals w ith a particular genetic makeup, and yet they tend to display a higher dema nd for food. The association of variants in the FTO gene with the hypothala mic regulation of food intake gives a biological foundation to the observed differences in healthy investments. This analysis provides an economic fra mework of health and human capital formation that integrates recent finding s in genetics and molecular biology and sheds light on the interdependence between genes and economic choices of investment.
DTSTAMP:20260404T091540Z DTSTART:20150206T153000Z DTEND:20150206T170000Z SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR