Intergenerational mobility, early health shocks and public policy

There is increasing evidence in the literature that external conditions during pregnancy and early childhood have persistent effects on children across many dimensions of outcomes in adulthood. This literature shows that differences in endowments at birth need not be genetic but instead are influenced by environmental factors while the fetus is in the womb. However, there is little known about policy-induced variation in maternal and early-life health and about health shocks occurring to older children. While hospital access and well-child visits are considered to be an important factor determining the child mortality, only short-run outcomes of the introduction of clinics, providing care for pregnant mothers and their newborns, haven been studied. Our research aims to fill these voids in the literature by matching existing administrative datasets to a number of new datasets, including information on specific birth month beginning in the 1920s, information on the timing and spread of diseases, the implementation of programs for maternal and neonatal care from the 1930s onwards.

Av internasjonalt samarbeid vil vi særlig trekke fram et tett samarbeid med miljøet i våre felt ved Universitet i Chicago. Vi jobber nå tett med Heckman sin gruppe har jevnlige besøk dit, og de kommer til oss. Videre er Magne Mogstad også en viktig samarbeidspartner for oss som vi både arrangerer workshops med og jobber på artikler sammen. Videre har vi også nå et tett samarbeid med forskere på Harris Public School ved Universitet i Chicago, der vi har fellesarbeider med utviklingspsykologen Professor Ariel Khalil. Videre har vi utviklet et enda tettere samarbeid med UCL/IFS i London og vi har flere felles arbeider og prosjekter. I tillegg har vi inngått et samarbeid med Paris School of Economics, og vi har alt arrangert to workshops med PSE og UCL/IFS og har planlagt flere. Vi har også rekruttert junioforskere både fra PSE og fra UCL/IFS.

There is increasing evidence in the literature that external conditions during pregnancy and early childhood have persistent effects on children across many dimensions of outcomes in adulthood. This literature shows that differences in endowments at birth need not be genetic but instead are influenced by environmental factors while the fetus is in the womb. However, there is little known about policy-induced variation in maternal and early-life health and about health shocks occurring to older children. While hospital access and well-child visits are considered to be an important factor determining the child mortality, only short-run outcomes of the introduction of clinics, providing care for pregnant mothers and their newborns, haven been studied. There is also some literature on later childhood health shocks: Several studies analyze the long-term benefits of disease eradication programs targeting the eradication of malaria and the hookworm disease in the American South and of the introduction of the sulfa drug for pneumonia treatment. Our research aims to fill these voids in the literature by matching existing administrative datasets to a number of new datasets, including information on specific birth month beginning in the 1920s, information on the timing and spread of diseases, the implementation of programs for maternal and neonatal care from the 1930s onwards, as well as information on the implementation and utilization of a tuberculosis control program. By matching these datasets to administrative records of families, we are able to analyze the effects of in utero and childhood health shocks on the first generation of children and how these shocks affect the subsequent generation. We are also able to study whether effects differ by family background, as we are able to observe the socioeconomic status of the first generation?s parents. Finally, we are also able to assess a variety of outcomes for the second generation.