In utero exposure to economic fluctuations and birth outcomes: An analysis of the relevance of the local unemployment rate in Brazilian state capitals

Matias Mrejen and Danielle Machado ()

PLOS ONE, 2019, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: Objective: Analyze if in utero exposure to economic downturns is associated with worsened birth outcomes. Methods: We used birth records from all live singleton births in the 27 Brazilian state capitals between October 2012 and December 2016 (n = 2,952,430) and linked them to local unemployment rates according to the mother’s residence. We estimated the association between different birth outcomes and the local unemployment rate in the three trimesters before birth. We included maternal characteristics and month, year and municipality fixed effects as covariates. We also estimated the association for different groups of mothers, based on marital status, educational level, age and race. Results: A 1 p.p. increase in the local unemployment rate in the trimester before birth is associated with 2.68% higher odds of being born with very low birthweight (

Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0223673

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223673

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