| Summary: | This dissertation focuses on the early origins and life cycle evolution of health and human capital. I explore the importance of genetics and family investment in explaining health and economic inequality. While genetic endowments are fixed at birth, they can influence decisions such as healthy behaviors or investments in human capital, and interact with features of the social and economic environment. By changing the environment, effective interventions and optimal choices of investments can help mitigate innate inequalities and promote human capital development.
One of the key components that differentiate individuals from one another is their genetic endowment. Advances in the mapping of the human genome have allowed biological and social scientists to better understand the functioning of our DNA. In the first Chapter of this dissertation, I develop a model of obesity evolution over the life cycle that takes into account the dynamic interaction between genetic inheritance and own investment in health via choices of food intake and physical activity.
In the second Chapter I focus on childhood health, which has long been recognized as a fundamental driver of well-being later in life. However, most studies and public policies consider childhood health separately from the other components of human capital, such as character and cognition. I jointly analyze the development of health, cognition, and noncognitive skills during early childhood, modeling the dynamic interaction between these three facets of human capital and the fundamental role played by parental investments.
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