  This paper investigates the causal relationship between income shocks during
the first years of life and adulthood mortality due to specific causes of
death. Using all death records in the United States during 1968-2004 for
individuals who were born in the first half of the 20th century, we document a
sizable and statistically significant association between income shocks early
in life, proxied by GDP per capita fluctuations, and old age cause-specific
mortality. Conditional on individual characteristics and controlling for a
broad array of current and early-life conditions, we find that a 1 percent
decrease in the aggregate business cycle in the year of birth is associated
with 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.7, 0.9, and 2.1 percent increase in the likelihood of
mortality in old ages due to malignant neoplasms, Diabetes Mellitus,
cardiovascular diseases, Influenza, chronic respiratory diseases, and all other
diseases, respectively.
