The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance

A. Case; A. Fertig; C. Paxson

doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2004.09.008

The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance

A. Case, A. Fertig, C. Paxson

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Abstract

We quantify the lasting effects of childhood health and economic circumstances on adult health, employment and socioeconomic status, using data from a birth cohort that has been followed from birth into middle age. Controlling for parental income, education and social class, children who experience poor health have significantly lower educational attainment, poorer health, and lower social status as adults. Childhood health and circumstance appear to operate both through their impact on initial adult health and economic status, and through a continuing direct effect of prenatal and childhood health in middle age. Overall, our findings suggest more attention be paid to health as a potential mechanism through which intergenerational transmission of economic status takes place: cohort members born into poorer families experienced poorer childhood health, lower investments in human capital and poorer health in early adulthood, all of which are associated with lower earnings in middle age - the years in which they themselves become parents. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	365-389
Number of pages	25
Journal	Journal of Health Economics
Volume	24
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2004.09.008
State	Published - 2005

Bibliographical note

Cited By :656

Export Date: 26 December 2018

CODEN: JHECD

Correspondence Address: Case, A.; 367 Wallace Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544-1013, United States; email: accase@princeton.edu

Funding details: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Funding details: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NICHD

Funding details: National Institutes of Health, NIH, R01 HD41141-01

Funding text 1: We thank Angus Deaton and Jeff Kling for useful discussions, and Janet Currie, Helen Levy, seminar participants at several universities and an anonymous referee for useful comments. This research has been funded in part through NIH grant R01 HD41141-01(National Institute for Child Health and Development). Fertig acknowledges support from a MacArthur Foundation postdoctoral fellowship while writing this paper.

Keywords

Childhood health
Life course models
NCDS
Panel data
child health
health status
medical geography
panel data
socioeconomic status
academic achievement
attention
capital
child development
cohort analysis
economic aspect
education
employment
experience
family
health care
human
investment
parent
prenatal period
review
social class
socioeconomics

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.jhealeco.2004.09.008

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title = "The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance",

abstract = "We quantify the lasting effects of childhood health and economic circumstances on adult health, employment and socioeconomic status, using data from a birth cohort that has been followed from birth into middle age. Controlling for parental income, education and social class, children who experience poor health have significantly lower educational attainment, poorer health, and lower social status as adults. Childhood health and circumstance appear to operate both through their impact on initial adult health and economic status, and through a continuing direct effect of prenatal and childhood health in middle age. Overall, our findings suggest more attention be paid to health as a potential mechanism through which intergenerational transmission of economic status takes place: cohort members born into poorer families experienced poorer childhood health, lower investments in human capital and poorer health in early adulthood, all of which are associated with lower earnings in middle age - the years in which they themselves become parents. {\textcopyright} 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.",

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note = "Cited By :656 Export Date: 26 December 2018 CODEN: JHECD Correspondence Address: Case, A.; 367 Wallace Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544-1013, United States; email: accase@princeton.edu Funding details: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Funding details: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NICHD Funding details: National Institutes of Health, NIH, R01 HD41141-01 Funding text 1: We thank Angus Deaton and Jeff Kling for useful discussions, and Janet Currie, Helen Levy, seminar participants at several universities and an anonymous referee for useful comments. This research has been funded in part through NIH grant R01 HD41141-01(National Institute for Child Health and Development). Fertig acknowledges support from a MacArthur Foundation postdoctoral fellowship while writing this paper.",

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doi = "10.1016/j.jhealeco.2004.09.008",

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N2 - We quantify the lasting effects of childhood health and economic circumstances on adult health, employment and socioeconomic status, using data from a birth cohort that has been followed from birth into middle age. Controlling for parental income, education and social class, children who experience poor health have significantly lower educational attainment, poorer health, and lower social status as adults. Childhood health and circumstance appear to operate both through their impact on initial adult health and economic status, and through a continuing direct effect of prenatal and childhood health in middle age. Overall, our findings suggest more attention be paid to health as a potential mechanism through which intergenerational transmission of economic status takes place: cohort members born into poorer families experienced poorer childhood health, lower investments in human capital and poorer health in early adulthood, all of which are associated with lower earnings in middle age - the years in which they themselves become parents. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

AB - We quantify the lasting effects of childhood health and economic circumstances on adult health, employment and socioeconomic status, using data from a birth cohort that has been followed from birth into middle age. Controlling for parental income, education and social class, children who experience poor health have significantly lower educational attainment, poorer health, and lower social status as adults. Childhood health and circumstance appear to operate both through their impact on initial adult health and economic status, and through a continuing direct effect of prenatal and childhood health in middle age. Overall, our findings suggest more attention be paid to health as a potential mechanism through which intergenerational transmission of economic status takes place: cohort members born into poorer families experienced poorer childhood health, lower investments in human capital and poorer health in early adulthood, all of which are associated with lower earnings in middle age - the years in which they themselves become parents. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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VL - 24

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JF - Journal of Health Economics

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ER -

The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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