Intergenerational Transmission in Health: Causal estimates from fixed effects instrumental variables models for two cohorts of Australian children

Huong Le () and Ha Nguyen
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Huong Le: Queensland University of Technology

No WP1509, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Working Paper series from Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School

Abstract: This paper contributes to an emerging body of literature on intergenerational transmission in health by presenting the first causal estimates on the impact of maternal mental health on child health. The potential endogeneity of maternal mental health is dealt with by utilising nationally representative panel data from two cohorts and individual fixed effects instrumental variables models. While previous literature has found evidence supporting detrimental effects of poor maternal mental health on child health our results found no evidence to support this. Our results hold irrespective of whether we look at the contemporaneous or intertemporal effects. We also found little differential impact based on the gender or age of the child and the levels of maternal education or household income.These results demonstrate that failing to account for endogeneity of maternal mental health could over-estimate the harmful impact of poor maternal mental health on child health. Our findings are robust to a battery of sensitivity and specification tests.

Keywords: maternal; mental; health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C1 C3 I1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2015-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Intergenerational transmission in health: Causal estimates from fixed effects instrumental variables models for two cohorts of Australian children (2015)
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