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Mother's education and birth weight
Author(s)
Date Issued
2007-06-12
Date Available
2010-02-04T15:20:39Z
Abstract
Low birth weight has considerable short and long-term consequences and leads to high costs to the individual and society even in a developed economy. Low birth weight is partially a consequence of choices made by the mother
pre- and during pregnancy. Thus policies affecting these choices could have large returns.
Using British data, maternal education is found to be positively correlated with birth weight. We identify a causal
effect of education using the 1947 reform of the minimum school leaving age. Change in compulsory school leaving age has been previously used as an instrument, but has been criticised for mostly picking up time trends.
Here, we demonstrate that the policy effects differ by social background and hence provide identification across cohorts but also within cohort. We find modest but heterogenous positive effects of maternal education on birth weight with an increase from the baseline weight ranging from 2% to 6%.
Type of Material
Working Paper
Publisher
University College Dublin. Geary Institute
Series
UCD Geary Institute Discussion Paper Series
WP/24/2007
Keywords
Classification
I12
I29
Subject – LCSH
Mothers--Education
Birth weight, Low
Education--Economic aspects
Language
English
Status of Item
Not peer reviewed
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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