 Transgenerational health effects of in utero exposure to economic hardship: Evidence from preindustrial Southern NorwayEmre Sari, Mikko Moilanen and Hilde Leikny Sommerseth Economics & Human Biology, 2021, vol. 43, issue C Abstract: We studied whether in utero exposure to economic hardship during a grandmother’s pregnancy has a transgenerational effect on her grandchildren's health condition. We used an individual-level three-generation data set covering people born between 1734 and 1840 in the municipality of Rendalen in Norway. We found a culling effect in which grandchildren whose grandmothers gave birth in years of economic hardship lived approximately ten years longer than grandchildren whose mothers were born in years of economic well-being. This impact was only observed among the grandmothers who belong to the lowest social classes. Our results also showed that in higher social classes, economic hardship during a grandmother’s pregnancy deteriorated her grandchildren’s health by “scarring” the mother’s health. Keywords: Economic hardship; Transgenerational effects; Culling effect; Scarring effect; Historical population (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:43:y:2021:i:c:s1570677x2100085x DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101060 Access Statistics for this article Economics & Human Biology is currently edited by J. Komlos, Inas R Kelly and Joerg Baten More articles in Economics & Human Biology from Elsevier |
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