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UID:77568c88ed0d3b8ed9edfc9e6ad6bc9b
CATEGORIES:Seminars
CREATED:20150211T194729
SUMMARY:Pietro Biroli - University of Chicago (Job Market Seminar)
DESCRIPTION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Genetic and Economic Interaction in the Formation of Human Capital: The Cas
 e of Obesity\nAbstract:\nSmall genetic differences at birth confer a compar
 ative advantage in health and human capital formation, and can lead to subs
 tantial inequality in long term social and economic outcomes. I develop a s
 tructural model of health and human capital formation illustrating the dyna
 mic interaction between genetic inheritance and investments in health over 
 the life cycle. Genetic heterogeneity across individuals can change the uti
 lity cost of investments and the production function of health, shifting th
 e incentives to invest in healthy habits. Focusing on Body-Mass-Index (BMI)
  as a measure of poor health, I consider physical activity and food intake 
 as investments in health, and I evaluate their interaction with specific va
 riants in FTO and other genes associated with BMI in Genome-Wide Associatio
 n Studies. Applying this model to two different datasets, one of British ad
 olescents and one of US adults, I find that Gene-Environment interaction pl
 ays a pivotal role in the evolution of BMI. Food intake has a stronger impa
 ct on BMI for those individuals with a particular genetic makeup, and yet t
 hey tend to display a higher demand for food. The association of variants i
 n the FTO gene with the hypothalamic regulation of food intake gives a biol
 ogical foundation to the observed differences in healthy investments. This 
 analysis provides an economic framework of health and human capital formati
 on that integrates recent findings in genetics and molecular biology and sh
 eds light on the interdependence between genes and economic choices of inve
 stment.\n
DTSTAMP:20260406T071458Z
DTSTART:20150206T153000Z
DTEND:20150206T170000Z
SEQUENCE:0
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