Working Paper: NBER ID: w13384
Authors: Douglas Almond; Lena Edlund; Hongbin Li; Junsen Zhang
Abstract: This paper estimates the effects of maternal malnutrition exploiting the 1959-1961 Chinese famine as a natural experiment. In the 1% sample of the 2000 Chinese Census, we find that fetal exposure to acute maternal malnutrition had compromised a range of socioeconomic outcomes, including: literacy, labor market status, wealth and marriage market outcomes. Women married spouses with less education and later, as did men, if at all. In addition, maternal malnutrition reduced the sex ratio (males to females) in two generations -- those prenatally exposed and their children -- presumably through heightened male mortality. This tendency toward female offspring is interpretable in light of the Trivers-Willard (1973) hypothesis, according to which parents in poor condition should skew the offspring sex ratio toward daughters. Hong Kong natality micro data from 1984-2004 further confirm this pattern of female offspring among mainland-born residents exposed to malnutrition in utero.
Keywords: China Famine; Maternal Malnutrition; Socioeconomic Outcomes; Sex Ratio
JEL Codes: I10; I12; J12; J13; J16; J24; P2
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Maternal malnutrition due to the Chinese famine (J13) | Literacy rates (J89) |
| Maternal malnutrition due to the Chinese famine (J13) | Employment likelihood (J68) |
| Maternal malnutrition due to the Chinese famine (J13) | Marriage prospects (J12) |
| Maternal malnutrition due to the Chinese famine (J13) | Skewed sex ratio at birth (J79) |
| Famine exposure (I12) | Higher rates of illiteracy, unemployment, and lower economic status (I32) |
| Prenatal exposure to maternal malnutrition (I12) | Birth of more daughters (J12) |