Working Paper: NBER ID: w22393
Authors: Lauren L. Schmitz; Dalton Conley
Abstract: This study examines whether draft-lottery estimates of the causal effect of Vietnam-era military service on schooling vary by genetic propensity toward educational attainment. To capture the complex genetic architecture that underlies the bio-developmental pathways behavioral traits and evoked environments associated with educational attainment, we construct a polygenic score (PGS) for the Vietnam-era cohort in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) that aggregates thousands of individual loci across the human genome, weighted by effect sizes derived from a recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) for years of education. Our findings suggest veterans with below average PGSs for educational attainment completed fewer years of schooling than comparable non-veterans with the same PGS, primarily due to fewer years of college education. On the other hand, we do not find any difference in the educational attainment of veterans and non-veterans with above average PGSs. Results show that public policies and exogenous environments may induce heterogeneous treatment effects by genetic disposition.
Keywords: Vietnam-era conscription; educational attainment; polygenic score; military service; genetic influences
JEL Codes: I20; I24; I26; J01
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| military service (H56) | educational outcomes (I26) |
| draft eligibility (Z22) | veteran status (J45) |
| PGS (below-average) + veteran status (J79) | educational attainment (I21) |
| PGS (above-average) + veteran status (J79) | educational attainment (I21) |
| military service + genotype (H56) | educational outcomes (I26) |
| conscription (H56) | educational attainment (veterans with below-average PGS) (I24) |
| genotype (Y60) | labor market outcomes (J48) |