Roots of opportunity: influences of early-life health on intergenerational mobility in a developing country

Giovanna Pavlovic Quintão and Luiz Guilherme Scorzafave

No wp-2025-76, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: This study investigates the long-term effects of early-life health on intergenerational mobility in Brazil. Using the first cohort in Brazil, conducted in Ribeirão Preto city in 1978-79, linked to administrative income records, we study the effects of low birth weight on upward mobility and income inequality, conditional on several confounding factors. We find that individuals born with low birth weight have 13.5 percentage point chance to surpass their parents' income by at least 10 percentiles. The penalty for having poor early health remains if we use other measures of early health.

Keywords: Intergenerational Mobility; Health; Children; Income inequality; Education; Inequality and Well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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