Here is your pdf: From the cradle to the labor market? The effect of birth weight on adult outcomes

The length of the document below is: 31 page(s) long

The self-declared author(s) is/are:

www.econ.ucla.edu

The subject is as follows:
Subject: Original authors did not specify.

The original URL is: LINK

The access date was:
Access date: 2019-02-13 16:34:20.539909

Please be aware that this may be under copyright restrictions. Please send an email to admin@pharmacoengineering.com for any AI-generated issues.

The content is as follows:

FROMTHECRADLETOTHELABORMARKET?THE

EFFECTOFBIRTHWEIGHTONADULTOUTCOMES*

SANDRAE.B

LACKPAULJ.D

EVEREUXKJELLG.S

ALVANESLowerbirthweightbabieshaveworseoutcomes,bothshort-runintermsof

one-yearmortalityratesandlongerrunintermsofeducationalattainmentand

earnings.However,recentresearchhascalledintoquestionwhetherbirthweight

itselfisimportantorwhetheritsimplyreßectsotherhard-to-measurecharacter-

istics.Byapplyingwithintwintechniquesusinganunusuallyrichdatasetfrom

Norway,weexaminetheeffectsofbirthweightonbothshort-runandlong-run

outcomesforthesamecohorts.WeÞndthatbirthweightdoesmatter;despite

short-runtwinÞxedeffectsestimatesthataremuchsmallerthanOLSestimates,

theeffectsonlonger-runoutcomessuchasadultheight,IQ,earnings,andedu-

cationaresigniÞcantandsimilarinmagnitudetoOLSestimates.

I.I

NTRODUCTIONLowerbirthweightbabieshaveworseoutcomes,bothshort-

runintermsofone-yearmortalityratesandlongerruninterms

ofeducationalattainmentandearnings.Butisthisrelationship

causal?Recentresearchhasprovidedconßictingevidence,leav-

inguswonderingwhetherbirthweightitselfisimportantor

whetheritsimplyreßectsotherhard-to-measurecharacteristics.

Understandingboththeshort-runandlong-runeffectsof

birthweightisimportantfromanumberofperspectives.Onthe

policyside,governmentshaveimplementedanumberofpolicies

toimprovethehealthofbabiesand,hence,theirlateroutcomes.

Consider,forexample,theWomen,Infants,andChildrenPro-

gram(WIC)intheUnitedStates,afederallyfundedprogramthat

providesnutritioncounselingandsupplementalfoodforpregnant

*BlackandDevereuxgratefullyacknowledgeÞnancialsupportfromthe

NationalScienceFoundationandtheCaliforniaCenterforPopulationResearch.

SalvanesthankstheNorwegianResearchcouncilforÞnancialsupport.Weare

gratefultotheMedicalBirthRegistryofNorwayforprovidingthebirthrecords

data.WethankMarianneBitler,AmitabhChandra,AnneDaltveit,SusanDy-

narski,KanikaKapur,LindaLoury,PerMagnus,andOleMartinSundetforvery

usefuldiscussionsandseminarparticipantsattheFederalReserveBankofNew

York,BostonCollege,BrownUniversity,PrincetonUniversity,UCDDublin,

TuftsUniversity,CEPRUpsala,StockholmUniversity,Socialforskningsinstitut-

tetCopenhagen,Warwick,Essex,MaynoothCollege,TrinityCollegeDublin,

QueensUniversityBelfast,UniversityCollegeLondon,LondonSchoolofEconom-

ics,UniversityofAmsterdam,UniversityofBergen,andCOSTParisforhelpful

comments.ThisresearchwasconductedwhileBlackwasonleaveattheIndus-

trialRelationsSectionatPrincetonUniversity.

©2007bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollegeandtheMassachusettsInstituteof

Technology.

TheQuarterlyJournalofEconomics,

February2007

Please note all content on this page was automatically generated via our AI-based algorithm (BishopKingdom ID: 0yzuWekY329iCwO5s0Sc). Please let us know if you find any errors.