Instrumental Variable Estimation of the Causal Effect of Hunger Early in Life on Health Later inLife

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: van den Berg, Gerard J.; Pinger, Pia R.; Schoch, Johannes
• 署名单位: University of Mannheim; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; University of Bonn; IZA Institute Labor Economics
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12250
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 465-506
• 关键词: developmental origins; prenatal exposure; educational-attainment; critical periods; food insecurity; sex-differences; secular trends; public-health; birth-weight; labor-market

摘要

We estimate average causal effects of early-life hunger on late-life health by applying instrumental variable estimation, using data with self-reported periods of hunger earlier in life, with famines as instruments. The data contain samples from European countries and include birth cohorts exposed to various famines in the twentieth century. We use two-sample IV estimation to deal with imperfect recollection of conditions at very early stages of life. The estimated average causal effects may exceed famine effects by at least a factor three.