Genetic predispositions moderate the effectiveness of tobacco excise taxes.

BACKGROUND: Tobacco consumption is one of the leading causes of preventable death. In this study, we analyze whether someone's genetic predisposition to smoking moderates the response to tobacco excise taxes. METHODS: We interact polygenic scores for smoking behavior with state-level tobacco excise taxes in longitudinal data (1992-2016) from the US Health and Retirement Study (N = 12,058). RESULTS: Someone's genetic propensity to smoking moderates the effect of tobacco excise taxes on smoking behavior along the extensive margin (smoking vs. not smoking) and the intensive margin (the amount of tobacco consumed). In our analysis sample, we do not find a significant gene-environment interaction effect on smoking cessation. CONCLUSIONS: When tobacco excise taxes are relatively high, those with a high genetic predisposition to smoking are less likely (i) to smoke, and (ii) to smoke heavily. While tobacco excise taxes have been effective in reducing smoking, the gene-environment interaction effects we observe in our sample suggest that policy makers could benefit from taking into account the moderating role of genes in the design of future tobacco control policies.

ADHD and later-life labor market outcomes in the United States.

This study analyzes the relation between attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and later-life labor market outcomes in the United States and whether these relationships are mediated by educational attainment. To overcome endogeneity concerns in the estimation of these relationships, we exploit the polygenic risk score (PRS) for ADHD in a cohort where the diagnosis of and treatment for ADHD were generally not available. We find that an increase in the PRS for ADHD reduces the likelihood of employment, individual income, and household wealth. Moreover, it increases the likelihood of receiving social security disability benefits, unemployment or worker compensation, and other governmental transfers. We provide evidence that educational attainment mediates these relationships to a considerable extent (14-58%).

On the genetic bias of the quarter of birth instrument.

Many studies in economics use quarter of birth as an instrument for identifying the causal effect of schooling on outcomes such as earnings and health. The key assumption in these studies is that people born in different quarters of the year do not differ systematically in their unobserved abilities. This study uses genetic data from the US Health and Retirement Study to analyze the validity of the quarter of birth instrument. We find some evidence that genetic factors influencing education are not randomly distributed over the year. However, these factors only slightly change the effect of quarter of birth on schooling.

Health and entrepreneurship in four Caribbean Basin countries.

The literature dealing with health and entrepreneurship has focused on developed countries. We use a sample of almost 5000 business owners and wage-workers from four Caribbean Basin countries to study this relationship. Analyses are performed using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor along with the Visual Analogue Scale of the EQ-5D-5L instrument as an overall health rating. The results show that business owners are healthier than wage-workers, which is in line with the findings from studies in developed countries. Furthermore, better health is associated with a lower likelihood for fear of business failure to be a deterrent to new business formation, a greater likelihood of self-belief in having the skills to run a business, and an increased recognition of start-up business opportunities among wage-workers. These positive associations between health and entrepreneurial perceptions provide new evidence about why less healthy individuals refrain from entrepreneurship. Finally, we find that the healthiest business owners run the companies with the highest growth expectations.

The stature of the self-employed and its relation with earnings and satisfaction.

Taller individuals have on average a higher socio-economic status than shorter individuals. In countries where entrepreneurs have high social status, we may therefore expect that entrepreneurs are taller than wage workers. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (2002-2012), we find that a 1cm increase in an individual's height raises the probability of being self-employed (the most common proxy for entrepreneurship) versus paid employed by 0.15 percentage points. Within the self-employed, the probability of being an employer is increased by 0.10 percentage points as a result of a 1cm increase in height, whereas this increase is 0.05 percentage points for an own-account worker. This result corroborates the higher social status of employers compared to own-account workers. We find a height premium in earnings for self-employed and paid-employed individuals: an additional 1cm in height is associated with a 0.39% increase in hourly earnings for paid employees and a 0.52% increase for self-employed individuals. Our analysis reveals that approximately one third of the height premium in earnings is explained by differences in educational attainment. We also establish the existence of a height premium in terms of work and life satisfaction, which is more pronounced for paid employees than for self-employed individuals.