The Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School is pleased to present a lecture with Lauren Schmitz (Research Fellow, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan) titled, “Does School Quality Moderate Genetic Propensity for Educational Attainment and Subsequent Returns to Education? ” as part of the Economics of Aging speaker series.

Common consensus says that investment in human capital is correlated with improved welfare, including health, wages, and occupational status. Schmitz’s pioneering work contributes to understanding of the causal role of the quality of education in economic outcomes as well as unmeasured innate ability. This study uses 30 years of earnings records, matched with genetic and sociodemographic data, to explore whether school quality in childhood modifies the association between genetic propensity for educational attainment and lifetime earnings.

Dr. Schmitz's research bridges theory and methods in economics, sociology, and genetic epidemiology to explore ways in which biological predispositions interact with economic and social environments to promote or impede health and social mobility across the lifespan. Her current research focuses on how economic disadvantage and related social stressors combine with genotype to affect health disparities at older ages.

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