There is an extensive literature on the causes of educational inequalities, and the life course consequences of educational attainment. Mendelian randomization, where genetic variants associated with exposures of interest are used as proxies for those exposures, often within an instrumental variables framework, has proven highly effective at elucidating the causal effects of several risk factors in the biomedical sciences. We discuss the potential for this approach to be used in the context of social and socio‐economic exposures and outcomes, such as educational attainment.

中文翻译：

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遗传学可以揭示受教育程度的原因和后果吗？

关于教育不平等的原因以及教育成就的人生历程后果，有大量文献。孟德尔随机化已被证明在阐明生物医学科学中若干风险因素的因果关系方面非常有效，孟德尔随机化通常将其与目标暴露相关的遗传变异用作这些暴露的代理，通常在工具变量框架内。我们讨论了这种方法在社会和社会经济风险及成果（例如教育程度）中使用的可能性。