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Hebert, Benjamin

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Hebert, Benjamin
Author's Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.3d68050d-6dda-440b-98c6-9e7d734ed97e

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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    The Promises and Pitfalls of Genoeconomics
    (Annual Reviews, 2012) Benjamin, Daniel J.; Cesarini, David; Chabris, Christopher F.; Glaeser, Edward; Laibson, David; GuĂ°nason, Vilmundur; Harris, Tamara B.; Launer, Lenore J.; Purcell, Shaun M.; Smith, Albert Vernon; Johannesson, Magnus; Magnusson, Patrik K.E.; Christakis, Nicholas A.; Atwood, Craig S.; Hebert, Benjamin; Freese, Jeremy; Hauser, Robert M.; Hauser, Taissa S.; Hultman, Christina M.; Lichtenstein, Paul; Beauchamp, Jonathan P.; Grankvist, Alexander
    This article reviews existing research at the intersection of genetics and economics, presents some new findings that illustrate the state of genoeconomics research, and surveys the prospects of this emerging field. Twin studies suggest that economic outcomes and preferences, once corrected for measurement error, appear to be about as heritable as many medical conditions and personality traits. Consistent with this pattern, we present new evidence on the heritability of permanent income and wealth. Turning to genetic association studies, we survey the main ways that the direct measurement of genetic variation across individuals is likely to contribute to economics, and we outline the challenges that have slowed progress in making these contributions. The most urgent problem facing researchers in this field is that most existing efforts to find associations between genetic variation and economic behavior are based on samples that are too small to ensure adequate statistical power. This has led to many false positives in the literature. We suggest a number of possible strategies to improve and remedy this problem: (a) pooling data sets, (b) using statistical techniques that exploit the greater information content of many genes jointly, and (c) focusing on economically relevant traits that are most proximate to known biological mechanisms.
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    Investment Dynamics with Natural Expectations
    (Association of the International Journal of Central Banking, 2012) Fuster, Andreas; Hebert, Benjamin; Laibson, David
    We study an investment model in which agents have the wrong beliefs about the dynamic properties of fundamentals. Specifically, we assume that agents underestimate the rate of mean reversion. The model exhibits the following six properties: (i) Beliefs are excessively optimistic in good times and excessively pessimistic in bad times. (ii) Asset prices are too volatile. (iii) Excess returns are negatively autocorrelated. (iv) High levels of corporate profits predict negative future excess returns. (v) Real economic activity is excessively volatile; the economy experiences amplified investment cycles. (vi) Corporate profits are positively autocorrelated in the short run and negatively autocorrelated in the medium run. The paper provides an illustrative model of animal spirits, amplified business cycles, and excess volatility.
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    Essays on Information and Debt
    (2015-05-01) Hebert, Benjamin; Farhi, Emmanuel; Laibson, David; Campbell, John Y.; Hart, Oliver; Aghion, Phillippe; Scharfstein, David S.
    These essays attempt to explain why debt contracts are so common, and to explore the consequences resulting from the use of debt contracts. In the first essay, “Moral Hazard and the Optimality of Debt,” I use tools from information theory to study a novel form of moral hazard, and show that debt contracts are the optimal security design in this setting. In the second essay, “Generalized Rational Inattention,” written with Michael Woodford, we develop a generalized version of rational inattention, based on an axiomatic characterization, using the same theorems employed in the first essay. In the third essay, “The Costs of Sovereign Default: Evidence from Argentina,” written with Jesse Schreger, we estimate the costs that Argentina’s 2014 sovereign default imposed on Argentine firms.
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    Most Reported Genetic Associations with General Intelligence Are Probably False Positives
    (Sage, 2012) Laibson, David; Chabris, Christopher F.; Hebert, Benjamin; Benjamin, Daniel J.; Beauchamp, Jonathan P.; Cesarini, David; van der Loos, Matthijs J. H. M.; Johannesson, Magnus; Magnusson, Patrik K. E.; Lichtenstein, Paul; Atwood, Craig S.; Freese, Jeremy; Hauser, Taissa S.; Hauser, Robert M.; Christakis, Nicholas A.
    General intelligence (g) and virtually all other behavioral traits are heritable. Associations between g and specific single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in several candidate genes involved in brain function have been reported. We sought to replicate published associations between g and 12 specific genetic variants (in the genes DTNBP1, CTSD, DRD2, ANKK1, CHRM2, SSADH, COMT, BDNF, CHRNA4, DISC1, APOE, and SNAP25) using data sets from three independent, well-characterized longitudinal studies with samples of 5,571, 1,759, and 2,441 individuals. Of 32 independent tests across all three data sets, only 1 was nominally significant. By contrast, power analyses showed that we should have expected 10 to 15 significant associations, given reasonable assumptions for genotype effect sizes. For positive controls, we confirmed accepted genetic associations for Alzheimer’s disease and body mass index, and we used SNP-based calculations of genetic relatedness to replicate previous estimates that about half of the variance in g is accounted for by common genetic variation among individuals. We conclude that the molecular genetics of psychology and social science requires approaches that go beyond the examination of candidate genes.