Recently posted to SSRN:
"The MAOA Gene Predicts Credit Card Debt"
JAN-EMMANUEL DE NEVE, London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE), Harvard Business School
JAMES H. FOWLER, University of California, San Diego - Department of Political Science
This paper presents the first evidence of a specific gene predicting real world economic behavior. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we show that individuals with a polymorphism of the MAOA gene that has lower transcriptional efficiency are significantly more likely to report having credit card debt. Having one or both MAOA alleles of the low efficiency type raises the average likelihood of having credit card debt by 7.8% and 15.9% respectively. About half of our population has one or both MAOA alleles of the low type. Prior research has linked this genetic variation to lack of conscientiousness, impulsivity, and addictive behavior.
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