Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
2-2014
Abstract
We investigate whether the effects of parents’ in utero malnutrition extend to the second generation (their children). Specifically, we explore whether the second generation’s level of schooling is negatively impacted by their parents’ malnutrition in utero, using the China Famine as a natural experiment. We find that, the impact of mother’s in utero malnutrition due to the Famine reduced second generation male and female entrance into junior secondary school by about 5–7 percentage points. We measure famine severity with provincial excess death rates instrumented by measures of adverse climate conditions, which corrects for possible biases induced by measurement errors and omitted variables. Our findings indicate the existence of an important second-generation multiplier of policies that support the nutrition of pregnant women and infants in any country where nutritional deficiencies remain today.
Keywords
fetal origin, malnutrition, schooling, Barker hypothesis, China Famine
Discipline
Asian Studies | Economics | Health Economics
Research Areas
Applied Microeconomics
Publication
World Development
Volume
54
First Page
232
Last Page
242
ISSN
0305-750X
Identifier
10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.08.007
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
KIM, Seonghoon; DENG, Quheng; FLEISHER, Belton M.; and LI, Shi.
The lasting impact of parental early life malnutrition on their offspring: Evidence from the China Great Leap Forward Famine. (2014). World Development. 54, 232-242.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/1654
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.08.007