Intergenerational Transmission of Health at Birth: Fathers Matter Too!

Osea Giuntella, Giulia La Mattina and Climent Quintana-Domeque

No 30237, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We use a unique data set of linked birth records from Florida to analyze the intergenerational transmission of health at birth by parental gender. We show that both paternal and maternal birth weights significantly predict the child’s birth weight, even after accounting for all genetic and environmental factors that are common and time-invariant within a family. Our estimates reveal that a one standard deviation increase in mother’s birth weight (535 grams) translates into a 0.13-0.24 standard deviations increase in child’s birth weight (70-128 grams), accounting or not for maternal grandmother fixed effects. On the father’s side, we find that a one standard deviation increase in father’s birth weight (563 grams) translates into a 0.10-0.15 standard deviations increase in child’s birth weight (56-78 grams), accounting or not for paternal grandmother fixed effects. The significant role of both maternal and paternal health at birth in explaining offspring health at birth is confirmed when using alternative metrics: intrauterine growth, being small for gestational age or being too heavy (i.e., macrosomic).

JEL-codes: I0 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-hea
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Published as Osea Giuntella & Giulia La Mattina & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2023. "Intergenerational Transmission of Health at Birth: Fathers Matter Too!," Journal of Human Capital, vol 17(2), pages 284-313.

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