ICES Seminar in Experimental Economics and Game Theory
Nature, Nurture and Markets: A Micro-Founded Model of Assortative Mating and Genetic–Cultural Transmission in the Long Run
Friday, April 17, 2026 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM EDT
Vernon Smith Hall (formerly Metropolitan Building), 5183
The ICES Seminar in Experimental Economics and Game Theory of the Spring 2026 semester will feature:
University of Minnesota
Nature, Nurture and Markets: A Micro-Founded Model of Assortative Mating and Genetic–Cultural Transmission in the Long Run
Abstract
Assortative mating and intergenerational transmission jointly shape the long-run distribution of behavioral traits. While classical quantitative genetics characterizes how assortative mating modifies additive genetic variance and linkage disequilibrium, most economic and behavioral models treat spouse resemblance as an exogenous parameter. This paper develops a micro-founded intergenerational framework in which assortative mating, genetic inheritance, and cultural transmission are jointly determined.
Individuals possess polygenic endowments and behavioral traits transmitted across generations through both biological inheritance and parental influence. Matching occurs through a stable matching equilibrium based on observed traits, generating endogenous assortative mating. The model therefore links biological parameters (recombination and Mendelian sampling), cultural transmission matrices, and matching incentives to the stationary variance–covariance structure of traits in the population.
Under joint Gaussianity, the intergenerational dynamics close at the level of second moments, yielding a deterministic nonlinear operator that generalizes the classical Bulmer equation to a multi-trait setting with endogenous matching and cultural transmission. The framework delivers explicit decompositions of genetic and environmental components of trait variance and clarifies how vertical transmission amplifies persistence and gene–environment covariance.
Chromosome-level simulations with recombination confirm the theoretical structure and show that dynastic transmission primarily amplifies environmental persistence and gene environment alignment while preserving approximate Gaussianity of aggregate traits. The model provides a unified perspective on assortative mating, dynastic persistence, and the interaction of biological and cultural transmission in shaping the long-run architecture of behavioral traits.
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