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Sjoerd van Alten

@sjoerdalten.bsky.social

350 followers 160 following 48 posts

Postdoctoral Fellow Economics at VU Amsterdam. Interested in education/health, and its intersection with behavioral genetics Find out about my work: https://sites.google.com/view/sjoerd-van-alten

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · 23d

Thrilled to see this joint work out!
Big thanks to my amazing coauthors: Silvia Barcellos, Leandro Carvalho, Titus Galama, and Marina Aguiar Palma. (8/8)

Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · 23d

Key takeaway:
Even variation rooted in nature—our genes—exerts much of its influence through nurture. (7/8)

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · 23d

We quantify these three channels and find:
- Direct genetic transmission and genetic nurture both play substantial roles
- Assortative mating is comparatively minor
- For wealth outcomes, genetic nurture > direct transmission (6/8)

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · 23d

This shows parental genes matter not only through direct inheritance but also via:
- Genetic nurture – how parental genes shape the child’s environment
- Assortative mating – non-random partnering patterns (5/8)

Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · 23d

Our findings: "next-generation" effects of parental PGI on children's outcomes are surprisingly large, as compared to "same-generation" effects (the effects of the parent's PGI on their own socioeconomic status). (4/8)

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · 23d

To isolate causality, we exploit the natural randomization of genes at conception, conditioning on grandparents’ PGIs.
This lets us separate pure genetic transmission from environmental effects. (3/8)

Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · 23d

Using a unique linkage of genetic data from Lifelines_NL and administrative records from Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS), we ask:
How do a parent’s genes associated with educational attainment—measured by a polygenic index (PGI)—affect their children’s socioeconomic outcomes? (2/8)

Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · 23d

Proud to share our new @nber working paper on how genetics shape the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status in the Netherlands. 🧵(1/8)

www.nber.org/papers/w34208

A Chip Off the Old Block? Genetics and the Intergenerational Transmission of Socioeconomic Status

Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

www.nber.org

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Reposted by Sjoerd van Alten

NBER @nber.org · 27d

Genetics play a role on the persistence of socioeconomic across generations: one generation's genetics significantly impacts the education, income, and wealth of the next, from Sjoerd van Alten, Silvia H. Barcellos, Leandro Carvalho, Titus J. Galama, and Marina ... https://www.nber.org/papers/w34208

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Reposted by Sjoerd van Alten

Tim Morris @timtmorris.bsky.social · Aug 13

Call for abstracts: genetics, economic & social issues.

We're hosting a 1-day workshop on using genetic data to examine economic & social issues on 12th December at UCL’s Social Research Institute. More info & submission at link below #genetics #socialscience #economics #cohort

bit.ly/41EnPmu

Microsoft Forms

bit.ly

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · Jun 17

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · Jun 12

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · Jun 5

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Reposted by Sjoerd van Alten

Ted Schwaba @tedmond.bsky.social · May 20

Extremely excited to share the first effort of the Revived Genomics of Personality Consortium: A highly-powered, comprehensive GWAS of the Big Five personality traits in 1.14 million participants from 46 cohorts. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · Jun 1

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · May 22

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · May 20

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · May 18

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Reposted by Sjoerd van Alten

Gabriella Conti @gabriconti.bsky.social · May 10

📣 I’m delighted to share a new working paper that’s been years in the making:

🧬 “ #Gene × #Environment Interactions: Polygenic Scores and the Impact of an Early Childhood Intervention in Colombia”

👉🏻 Available here as @hceconomics.bsky.social WP: humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wp...

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · May 12

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · May 2

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Reposted by Sjoerd van Alten

Alex Strudwick Young @alextisyoung.bsky.social · Apr 28

I am recruiting a quantitative/computational postdoc to my group at UCLA. This is a great opportunity to work on foundational theory, methods, and software in statistical genetics. Link to apply: recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF10275. Please repost!

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Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · Apr 16

Agreed! The opportunity for follow-up analyses is endless. One thing I forgot to mention here is that these weights are available in the Returns Catalogue to any researchers who use the UKB, under application# 55154: biobank.ndph.ox.ac.uk/ukb/app.cgi?...

: Application

biobank.ndph.ox.ac.uk

Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · Apr 16

Many thanks to my amazing co-authors: Ben Domingue, Jessica Faul, Titus Galama, and Andries Marees. This paper has been a 4-year long journey and I am so happy to finally see it out!

Sjoerd van Alten @sjoerdalten.bsky.social · Apr 16

Overall, the message is clear: volunteer bias matters to GWAS results and downstream analyses. The extent to which it matters is phenotype-specific. The community should work on creating population-representative weights for various cohorts and incorporate these in GWAS.