The Effect of Prenatal Stress on Birth Weight: Evidence from the al-Aqsa Intifada

Hani Mansour () and Daniel Rees

No 1108, Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: No previous study has attempted to estimate the effect of intrauterine exposure to armed conflict, a potential source of stress, on pregnancy outcomes. Drawing on data from the 2004 Palestinian Demographic and Health Survey, we examine the relationship between fatalities caused by Israeli security forces (a measure of conflict intensity) and birth weight. Our estimates suggest that first-trimester fatalities are positively related to the probability that a child weighed less than 2,500 grams at birth. This result is consistent with medical studies showing a strong negative correlation between self-reported stress during the first trimester of pregnancy and birth weight.

Keywords: Birth weight; prenatal stress; Israeli-Palestinian conflict (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 p.
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.368783.de/dp1108.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Effect of Prenatal Stress on Birth Weight: Evidence from the al-Aqsa Intifada (2011)
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:diw:diwwpp:dp1108

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bibliothek ().