The Weight of the Crisis: Evidence from Newborns in Argentina

Carlos Bozzoli and Climent Quintana-Domeque

No 5294, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Argentina hit headlines around the world in 2002 on account of the largest debt default in history and a sudden economic collapse that generated statistics reminiscent of those from the Great Depression. In this article we focus on other consequences of the crisis that are not so obvious but that may linger for decades. Combining macroeconomic indicators with the Argentine national registry of live births (approximately 1.9 million from 2001 through 2003), we show that the crisis led to an average birth-weight loss of 30 grams. Our estimate is robust to different identification strategies. This deterioration in birth weight occurred in only about six months, and represents one-sixth of the difference in average birth weight between American and Pakistani babies. We also find that the crisis affected particularly the weight of babies born of mothers of low socioeconomic status. In an attempt to estimate the long-term economic costs of the crisis, we simulate the average loss of future individual earnings due to the reduction in average birth weight: about $500 per live birth.

Keywords: Argentina; birth weight; economic crisis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2010-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-lam
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published - revised version published in: Review of Economics and Statistics, 2014, 96 (3), 550-562.

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp5294.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Weight of the Crisis: Evidence From Newborns in Argentina (2014)
Working Paper: The Weight of the Crisis: Evidence from Newborns in Argentina (2013)
Working Paper: The Weight of the Crisis: Evidence from Newborns in Argentina (2010)
Working Paper: The Weight of the Crisis: Evidence From Newborns in Argentina (2010)
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:iza:izadps:dp5294

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().