Intergenerational Persistence of Health in Indonesia: The Importance of Using Biomarkers

Timothy Halliday (), Bhashkar Mazumder, Kompal Sinha and Huixia Wang
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Timothy Halliday: University of Hawaii at Manoa
Kompal Sinha: Macquarie University
Huixia Wang: Hunan University

No 18365, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: We examine health persistence between parents and their adult children in Indonesia using both subjective and objective health measures including biomarkers. Using Principal Components Analysis, we estimate the interegenerational persistence of the combination of these measures to be 0.30, providing some of the first estimates of the transmission of latent health for a middle income country. We also detect a highly significant second principal component suggesting that health has multiple dimensions. We find especially strong associations for biomarkers such as hemoglobin, the pulse rate and hypertension which have typically not been studied in prior intergenerational studies. Transmission is stronger from mothers, and to daughters. We find relatively little variation in intergenerational health transmission by family income or SES. However, we do find strong positive gradients between family SES and the pulse rate and obseity suggesting potential health pitfalls as low and middle income countries further develop. Our findings suggest a potentially important role for policies focused on maternal health in reducing the intergenerational transmission of health.

Keywords: intergenerational persistence; health; biomarkers; Indonesia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I14 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-02
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