Cancelled!!!! Seminar about Conditions at Birth, Ability, and the Causal Path to Cardiovascular Mortality
Cancelled!!!! Tuesday February 7th, Gerard van den Berg (University of Mannheim) would present his study "Conditions at Birth, Ability, and the Causal Path to Cardiovascular Mortality".
Time: cancelled!!!!!
Location: CPB-office, Van Stolkweg 14, The Hague
Presentation: Gerard van den Berg (University of Mannheim)
Discussant: Debby Lanser (CPB)
Language: English
Registration: Please register by sending an email to seminars@cpb.nl.
Abstract subject: We analyze the interaction effects of birth weight and the business cycle at birth on individual cardiovascular (CV) mortality later in life. In addition, we examine to what extent cognitive ability is able to mitigate these effects and to what extent the causal pathway is influenced by intermediate decisions and events. We use individual records of Swedish birth cohorts from 1915-1929 covering birth weight, family characteristics, school grades, sibling identifiers, and outcomes later in life including the death cause. We find that the birth weight distribution does not vary over the business cycle. The association between birth weight and CV mortality rate later in life is significantly stronger if the individual is born in a recession. This is not explained by differential fertility over the cycle by social class or by a causal pathway through cognitive ability, and the long-run effects are not mitigated by education, income, or marriage. Ability itself, as measured at age 10, does vary with birth weight, the cycle at birth, and their interaction. But the long-run effects of early-life conditions seem to mostly reflect direct biological mechanisms rather than indirect pathways or intermediate individual decisions.
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