Working Paper: NBER ID: w19839
Authors: Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholder; George L. Wehby; Sarah Lewis; Luisa Zuccolo
Abstract: We examine the effect of alcohol exposure in utero on child academic achievement. As well as studying the effect of any alcohol exposure, we investigate the effect of the dose, pattern, and duration of exposure. We use a genetic variant in the maternal alcohol-metabolism gene ADH1B as an instrument for alcohol exposure, whilst controlling for the child's genotype on the same variant. We show that the instrument is unrelated to an extensive range of maternal and paternal characteristics and behaviours. OLS regressions suggest an ambiguous association between alcohol exposure in utero and children's academic attainment, but there is a strong social gradient in maternal drinking, with mothers in higher socio-economic groups more likely to drink. In stark contrast to the OLS, the IV estimates show negative effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on child educational attainment. These results are very robust to an extensive set of model specifications. In addition, we show that that the effects are solely driven by the maternal genotype, with no impact of the child's genotype.
Keywords: alcohol exposure; child academic achievement; Mendelian randomization; prenatal alcohol consumption
JEL Codes: I12; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| adh1b (C29) | prenatal alcohol exposure (I12) |
| prenatal alcohol exposure (I12) | child academic achievement (I21) |
| adh1b (C29) | child academic achievement (I21) |
| prenatal alcohol exposure (I12) | educational attainment (I21) |
| adh1b (C29) | educational attainment (I21) |