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. 2018 Sep:30:162-171.
doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2018.07.005. Epub 2018 Jul 19.

Economic downturns and infant health

Rob Alessie  1 , Viola Angelini  1 , Jochen O Mierau  1 , Laura Viluma  2
Affiliations

Economic downturns and infant health

Rob Alessie et al. Econ Hum Biol. 2018 Sep.

Abstract

We study the gender-specific impact of macroeconomic conditions around birth on infant health. We use a sample of over 50,000 respondents born between 1950 and 1994 from Lifelines-a cohort and biobank from the northern Netherlands. Our results show that high provincial unemployment rates decrease fertility and lead to a lower birthweight in boys. The negative impact of high unemployment on birthweight is particularly strong for boys born to older mothers and for babies born to smoking mothers.

Keywords: Birthweight; Cohort studies; Unemployment.

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