 Fetal malnutrition and academic success: Evidence from Muslim immigrants in DenmarkJane Greve, Marie Louise Schultz-Nielsen and Erdal Tekin Economics of Education Review, 2017, vol. 60, issue C, 20-35 Abstract: This paper examines the impact of potential fetal malnutrition on the academic test scores of Muslim students in Denmark. We account for the endogeneity of fetal malnutrition by using exposure to the month of Ramadan as a natural experiment under the assumption that mothers of some of the Muslim students might have fasted during Ramadan when they were pregnant. We also complement our Muslim sample with a control group comprised of immigrant children from predominantly non-Muslim countries in a difference-in-differences framework. Our outcome measures are the standardized test scores from the national exams on the subjects of Danish, English, Mathematics, and Science administered by the Danish Ministry of Education. Our results indicate that fetal exposure to Ramadan is likely to have a negative impact on the achievement scores of Muslim students, especially among females. Our analysis further reveals that the estimated relationship is stronger among children with a relatively low socio-economic background. Our findings lend support for the importance of interventions designed to assist economically disadvantaged women during pregnancy. Date: 2017 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:60:y:2017:i:c:p:20-35 DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2017.07.008 Access Statistics for this article Economics of Education Review is currently edited by E. Cohn More articles in Economics of Education Review from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.