Working Paper: NBER ID: w18371
Authors: Janet Currie; Tom Vogl
Abstract: A growing literature documents the links between long-term outcomes and health in the fetal period, infancy, and early childhood. Much of this literature focuses on rich countries, but researchers are increasingly taking advantage of new sources of data and identification to study the long reach of childhood health in developing countries. Health in early life may be a more significant determinant of adult outcomes in these countries because health insults are more frequent, the capacity to remediate is more limited, and multiple shocks may interact. However, the underlying relationships may also be more difficult to measure, given significant mortality selection. We survey recent evidence on the adult correlates of early-life health and the long-term effects of shocks due to disease, famine, malnutrition, pollution, and war.
Keywords: early-life health; adult outcomes; developing countries; health shocks; malnutrition; disease; policy implications
JEL Codes: I12; I15; J24; O15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| malnutrition (I32) | recovery from disease (I12) |
| childhood mortality rates decline (J13) | long-term outcomes of previously unhealthy children become more relevant (I12) |
| childhood health measures (like height) (I14) | adult outcomes (such as wages and educational attainment) (I26) |
| health shocks in developing countries (I15) | greater cumulative negative impacts (F69) |
| effectiveness of mitigation strategies is lower in poorer countries (F63) | exacerbating consequences of health insults (I12) |
| early-life health shocks (I12) | adult outcomes (I26) |