From the cradle to the labor market? the effect of birth weight on adult outcomes
By: by Sandra E. Black, Paul Devereux, Kjell G. Salvanes.
Contributors: Devereux, Paul.
Series: Discussion paper ;; no. 1864; Discussion paper (Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit : Online) ;; no. 1864
Publisher: IZA
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Bonn, Germany
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Birth weight.; Economic indicators.; Social indicators.
Description: "Lower birth weight babies have worse outcomes, both short-run in terms of one-year mortality rates and longer run in terms of educational attainment and earnings. However, recent research has called into question whether birth weight itself is important or whether it simply reflects other hard-to-measure characteristics. By applying within twin techniques using a unique dataset from Norway, we examine both short-run and long-run outcomes for the same cohorts. We find that birth weight does matter; very small short-run fixed effect estimates can be misleading because longer-run effects on outcomes such as height, IQ, earnings, and education are significant and similar in magnitude to OLS estimates. Our estimates suggest that eliminating birth weight differences between socio-economic groups would have sizeable effects on the later outcomes of children from poorer families"--Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit web site.
Notes: Also available in print.
Includes bibliographical references.
Title from PDF file as viewed on 12/7/2005.
System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.