Random Genetic Variation Links Personality to Earnings and Wealth

@misc{carvalho2026random,
  title = {{Random Genetic Variation Links Personality to Earnings and Wealth}},
  author = {Leandro Carvalho and Sjoerd van Alten and Silvia Barcellos and Stephen Dorn and Titus Galama and Catharina A. Hartman and Qiongshi Lu and Dilnoza Muslimova},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.06088},
  eprint = {2610.06088},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.06088},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Random Genetic Variation Links Personality to Earnings and Wealth
AU  - Leandro Carvalho
AU  - Sjoerd van Alten
AU  - Silvia Barcellos
AU  - Stephen Dorn
AU  - Titus Galama
AU  - Catharina A. Hartman
AU  - Qiongshi Lu
AU  - Dilnoza Muslimova
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/05
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.06088
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.06088
AB  - Personality is associated with economic outcomes, but whether these relationships are causal remains unclear. We exploit within-family variation in genetic propensity toward the Big Five generated by random genetic transmission from parents to offspring. Combining polygenic indexes from the Lifelines cohort study with 19 years of administrative tax records in the Netherlands, we find that greater genetic propensity toward emotional stability increases earnings and household wealth, while genetic propensity toward conscientiousness increases household wealth. The other three traits show no consistent pattern across outcomes and specifications. The effect of genetic propensity toward emotional stability on earnings remains positive as we progressively account for genetic propensity toward educational attainment, cognitive performance, and depression. These findings strengthen the evidence that personality causally affects earnings and wealth.
ER  -