Niels Rietveld awarded VENI grant

<link people niels-rietveld>Niels Rietveld, assistant professor in the Department of Applied Economics of Erasmus School of Economics, is awarded a Veni grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Niels Rietveld receives a Veni grant of €250,000 for a 3 year research project.

Niels Rietveld investigates the genetic background of socio-economic differences. Earlier studies have shown that many socio-economic characteristics of individuals, such as their position on the labour market and their educational attainment, are partly heritable. Niels Rietveld: “We know that genes matter for socio-economic outcomes, but not precisely which genes. In the past years, we found the first few of them. With help of the Veni grant I hope to reveal more of them.” Rietveld also plans to study the relation between several socio-economic characteristics on the genetic level, and whether genetically different individuals respond differently to policy measures.

His research has resulted in several major publications, for example in Science, Nature and the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS). Niels Rietveld has also co-authored an article in Nature Neuroscience. This paper examines the prediction of creativity by genetic risk scores for schizophrenia and bipolar disorders.  Read more here.

Congratulations Niels.