Parental age and offspring mortality: negative effects of reproductive aging are outweighed by secular increases in longevity

Kieron J. Barclay and Mikko Myrskylä
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Kieron J. Barclay: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Mikko Myrskylä: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

No WP-2016-011, MPIDR Working Papers from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

Abstract: As parental ages at birth continue to rise, concerns about the effects of fertility postponement on offspring are increasing as well. Advanced maternal and paternal ages have been associated with a range of negative health outcomes for offspring, including decreased longevity. The literature, however, has neglected to examine the benefits of being born at a later date. We analyse mortality among 1.9 million Swedish men and women born in 1938-1960, and use a sibling comparison design that accounts for all time invariant factors shared by the siblings. We show that there are no adverse effects of childbearing at advanced maternal ages, and that offspring mortality declines monotonically with advancing paternal age. This positive effect is attributable to the increase in life expectancy over successive birth cohorts, which dominates over individual-level factors that may have negative effects on offspring longevity, such as reproductive ageing.

Keywords: Sweden; ageing; longevity; mortality; parents; reproduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-dem, nep-eur and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2016-011

DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2016-011

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