Dragon year superstition, birth timing, and neonatal health outcomes

Cheng Huang, Shiying Zhang, Qingguo Zhao and Yan Lin

China Economic Review, 2021, vol. 66, issue C

Abstract: According to Chinese astrology, each lunar year is symbolized by a zodiac animal, including the Dragon, which represents auspiciousness, power and greatness. Based on high-quality administrative data from birth certificates in Shenzhen, China, we first show that a considerable number of births are shifted from one week before the Dragon year to one week after the Dragon year begins, mainly through vaginal and elective C-sections. Then, we estimate the causal health effects of delaying births but do not find any significant results, as measured by birth weight, Apgar scores, and neonatal mortality.

Keywords: Dragon superstition; Timing of births; Neonatal health; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X21000122
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:chieco:v:66:y:2021:i:c:s1043951x21000122

DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2021.101594

Access Statistics for this article

China Economic Review is currently edited by B.M. Fleisher, K. X. D. Huang, M.E. Lovely, Y. Wen, X. Zhang and X. Zhu

More articles in China Economic Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().