Using one new, genome-based measure, economists found that genetic endowments are distributed almost equally among children in low-income and high-income families. Success is not.
The least-gifted children of high-income parents graduate from college at higher rates than the most-gifted children of low-income parents.
Only about 24 percent of people born to low-income fathers in that high-potential group graduate from college. That's dwarfed by the 63 percent college graduation rate of people with similar genetic scores who are lucky enough to be born to high-income fathers.
Contrast that with a finding from the other end of the genetic scoring scale: about 27 percent of those who score at the bottom quarter of the genetic index, but are born to high-income fathers, graduate from college. That means they're at least as likely to graduate from college as the highest-scoring low-income students.
"It goes against the narrative that there are substantial genetic differences between people who are born into wealthy households and those born into poverty," said Kevin Thom, a New York University economist and author of a related working paper released recently by the National Bureau of Economic Research. "If you don't have the family resources, even the bright kids — the kids who are naturally gifted — are going to have to face uphill battles," Thom said.
"Their potential is being wasted. And that's not good for them, but that's also not good for the economy," said his collaborator, Johns Hopkins economist Nicholas Papageorge. "All those people who didn't go to college who had those high genetic scores, could they have cured cancer?"
Genes aren't destiny. Most achievement can't be explained by genetic factors. Environmental factors such as parents' income, on the other hand, could help answer the question.
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