Returns to birthweight
Returns to birthweight
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DOI：
10.1162/003465304323031139
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发表时间：
2004-05-01
影响因子：
8
通讯作者：
Rosenzweig, MR
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Behrman, JR;Rosenzweig, MR
我们使用同卵双胞胎的数据来改进对宫内营养摄入对成年人健康和收入的影响的估计，从而评估旨在增加出生体重的计划的有效性。我们使用这些结果来评估横断面估计中的偏差，并评估健康状况在决定世界收入分配中发挥主要作用的命题。我们发现，在不同国家之间，低出生体重儿的发生率有相当大的差异，我们的估计表明，增加出生时的体重有实际的回报。在大多数出生体重水平上，增加出生体重会增加婴儿的成年受教育程度和成年身高，但对成年人的体重没有影响。此外，如果不像横断面估计那样对遗传和家庭背景天赋进行控制，出生体重增加对就学的影响被低估了50%。我们还发现，有证据表明，在出生体重较低的婴儿中增加出生体重，但在出生体重较高的婴儿中增加出生体重，会在劳动力市场上带来显著的回报。然而，将发展中国家的出生体重分布转移到美国，将使世界收入不平等减少不到1%，远远低于人均GDP和出生体重之间的跨国相关性。
We use data on monozygotic twins to obtain improved estimates of the effect of intrauterine nutrient intake on adult health and earnings and thus to evaluate the efficacy of programs aimed at increasing birthweight. We use the results to evaluate the bias in cross-sectional estimates and to assess the proposition that health conditions play a major role in determining the world distribution of income. We show that there is considerable variation in the incidence of low birthweight across countries, and our estimates suggest that there are real payoffs to increasing body weight at birth. Increasing birthweight increases adult schooling attainment and adult height for babies at most levels of birthweight, but has no effect on adult body mass. The effect of increasing birthweight on schooling, moreover, is underestimated by 50% if there is no control for genetic and family background endowments as in cross-sectional estimates. We also find evidence that augmenting birthweight among lower-birthweight babies, but not among higher-birthweight babies, has significant labor market payoffs. However, shifting the distribution of birthweights in developing countries to that in the United States would reduce world earnings inequality by less than 1%, far less than indicated by the cross-country correlation between per-worker GDP and birthweight.