Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP9913
Authors: Sandra Black; Paul J. Devereux; Kjell G. Salvanes
Abstract: While much is now known about the effects of physical health shocks to pregnant women on the outcomes of the in-utero child, we know little about the effects of psychological stresses. One clear form of stress to the mother comes from the death of a parent. We examine the effects of the death of the mother?s parent during pregnancy on both the short-run and the long-run outcomes of the infant. Our primary specification involves using mother fixed effects?comparing the outcomes of two children with the same mother but where a parent of the mother died during one of the pregnancies?augmented with a control for whether there is a death around the time of the pregnancy in order to isolate true causal effects of a bereavement during pregnancy. We find small negative effects on birth outcomes, and these effects are bigger for boys than for girls. The effects on birth outcomes seems to be driven by deaths due to cardiovascular causes suggesting that sudden deaths are more difficult to deal with. However, we find no evidence of adverse effects on adult outcomes. The results are robust to alternative specifications.
Keywords: fetal origins; intergenerational transmission
JEL Codes: J13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| maternal bereavement due to the death of a parent during pregnancy (J13) | small negative effects on birth outcomes (J19) |
| maternal bereavement due to the death of a parent during pregnancy (J13) | negative effects on birth weight (I12) |
| maternal bereavement due to the death of a parent during pregnancy (J13) | negative effects on Apgar scores (I12) |
| maternal bereavement due to the death of a parent during pregnancy (J13) | more pronounced negative effects for boys than for girls (I24) |
| deaths from cardiovascular causes (I12) | effects on birth outcomes (J13) |
| effects on birth outcomes (J13) | no adverse effects on adult outcomes (J13) |