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Neonatal health of parents and cognitive development of children

Claus Thustrup Kreiner1, Hans Henrik Sievertsen2

  • 1University of Copenhagen, CEBI and CEPR, Denmark.

Journal of Health Economics
|December 15, 2019
PubMed

Insights

Parental birth weight significantly impacts children's academic performance, suggesting intergenerational links in health and socioeconomic success. This highlights the importance of neonatal health for future generations.

Area of Science:

  • Health Economics
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Sociology

Background:

  • Neonatal health is a known predictor of adult socioeconomic status.
  • The intergenerational impact of neonatal health on offspring outcomes remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between parental birth weight and their children's school test scores.
  • To determine if parental neonatal health influences the next generation's cognitive outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized empirical specifications analyzing the association between parental birth weight and child test scores.
  • Employed grandmother fixed effects to control for within-family variations between mothers.

Main Results:

  • A significant positive association was found between parental birth weight and child school test scores.
  • Maternal birth weight explained 50-80% of the association between a child's own birth weight and test scores.
  • Both maternal and paternal birth weights demonstrated equal importance in predicting child test scores.

Conclusions:

  • Parental birth weight is a strong predictor of offspring academic achievement.
  • Inequalities in neonatal health contribute to intergenerational disparities in key life outcomes.
  • Intergenerational health transmission plays a crucial role in socioeconomic mobility.

Keywords:
Human capital formationIntergenerational dependencyNeonatal health

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