Sandra Black, Paul Devereux, Petter Lundborg, Kaveh Majlesi — Nature versus nurture in economic outcomes and behaviours

The wealth of parents and that of their children is highly correlated, but little is known about the different roles genetic and environmental factors play in this. This column compares outcomes for adopted children in Sweden and those of their adoptive and biological parents and finds there is a substantial role for environment in the transmission of wealth and a much smaller role for pre-birth factors. And while human capital linkages between parents and children appear to have stronger biological than environmental roots, earnings and income are, if anything, more environmental....

Well, that settles economic Lamarckism.

VoxEU 
Nature versus nurture in economic outcomes and behaviours