I recently posted about the genetic component of savings behavior. The paper I reviewed there said that one could account for about 1/3 of variation in savings behavior by appealing to genetic differences. Whatever the authors of this study found (rightly or wrongly), they did not identify the gene(s) for savings. They identified the proportion of savings behavior that is correlated with some as-yet-unknown set of genes.
This is not atypical for a paper on economic or social outcomes and genetics. The findings support the idea that “genetics” explain some proportion of behavior, but this does not mean that we know the specific genes involved.
An entirely different kind of study is one where the researcher looks at a specific gene(s), with a known biological function, and examines whether this has a social or economic influence. I’m going to highlight two papers by Justin Cook, who has undertaken exactly…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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