Intergenerational Mobility and Childhood Obesity : Evidence from Genes

We show that childhood obesity leads to lower intergenerational income and social mobility by adopting an instrumental variable approach based on genetic information related to body weight. We examine the mechanisms that help explain the effects of childhood obesity on intergenerational mobility and find that childhood obesity negatively affects adult health, education attainment, and job opportunities. Our results suggest that childhood obesity interventions may have far-reaching benefits by improving socioeconomic mobility and equality. This study provides a new approach of using genetic information to identify causality in social science