Birth weight and family status revisited: evidence from Austrian register data

Wolfgang Frimmel and Gerald Pruckner

No 2011-17, Economics working papers from Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Abstract: In this paper, we study the socio-economic determinants of birth weight with a focus on the mother’s family status. We use Austrian birth register data covering all births between 1984 and 2007 and find that a mother’s marriage is associated with a higher birth weight of the newborn in a range between 4 and 6 dekagrams. This result remains stable if we control for time-invariant unobserved mother heterogeneity. A divorce around pregnancy results in birth weight 2 to 8 dekagrams lower as compared to that of newborn babies of single mothers. The family status effects in the 2000s are stronger as they were in the 1980s. A quantile regression suggests that family effects are more pronounced at the lower quantiles of the birth weight distribution and diminish at higher percentiles. Finally, in accordance with several instrumental variable (IV) studies, we find that the significantly positive impact of family status on children’s health outcomes disappears if we confine our sample to mothers, who are below the age of 22 years. We conclude that social and financial stress may have an important influence on the birth weight of newborns, especially at the lower tail of the birth weight distribution.

Keywords: Low birth weight; family status; newborn health; fixed-effects estimations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 I12 J12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2011-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Health Economics, Vol 23(6)/2014, pp. 426-445.

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http://www.econ.jku.at/papers/2011/wp1117.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: BIRTH WEIGHT AND FAMILY STATUS REVISITED: EVIDENCE FROM AUSTRIAN REGISTER DATA (2014)
Working Paper: Birth weight and family status revisited: evidence from Austrian register data (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jku:econwp:2011_17

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