Prenatal Conditions and Postnatal Environments: Impact on Future Economic Status

长期以来，劳动经济学家一直试图确定劳动力市场收入和经济地位的主要决定因素，更广泛地关注人力资本的作用。一个新兴的经济学文献证明了早期环境条件对人力资本积累的重要性。然而，为了更好地理解为什么早期生活条件很重要，我们必须求助于心理学家和神经生物学家最近进行的研究，这些研究表明了如何做到这一点。遗传学和早期经验之间的相互作用确实塑造了大脑结构。 这一跨学科项目研究产前条件和产后环境在决定人力资本和未来经济地位方面的作用。该分析基于经济框架，并使用计量经济学方法来建立因果关系，但结合了发展心理学和神经生物学领域的证据和见解，以便更好地了解早期条件如何以及为什么会对成年人的经济结果产生如此重大的影响。 调查小组包括一名经济学家、发展心理学家和流行病学家/发展心理学家。该项目包括两个相关的分析。 第一部分探讨了产前条件，特别是接触高水平的应激激素（皮质醇）在代际不平等永久化中的作用。以前的研究将收入的代际相关性归因于能力的遗传或高收入父母对子女的更大投资？的人力资本。 这个项目探讨了另一种机制在延续代际不平等中的作用？通过在子宫内暴露于压力来进行产前编程。产前编程是指在胎儿发育的敏感期或窗口期内，一种因素的作用，这种作用在整个生命过程中持续存在。 研究人员发现，贫穷妇女和黑人妇女的皮质醇水平升高，子宫内暴露于高水平的皮质醇会通过海马体损伤导致后代认知功能下降。在这种情况下，产前规划不仅可以解释晚年经济地位下降的原因，还可以解释经济地位的代际传递，以及为什么某些群体的持续贫困可能更严重（即，黑人比其他人。第二项分析探讨了出生体重和父母投资如何相互作用，影响长期结果。它侧重于出生体重，因为它是衡量儿童出生时整体健康状况的最常见指标，并与婴儿死亡率增加、教育程度和收入下降以及智商下降有关。这项工作遵循了Almond，Chay和Lee（2005）以及Black，Devereaux和Salvanes（2007）的工作，他们发现一旦控制了可能导致结果偏倚的母体异质性，出生体重对短期结局的影响很小，但对长期结局的影响很大。他们假设产后父母的投资可能与出生体重相互作用，从而显着影响长期结果，但没有数据来验证这一点。 该项目依赖于心理学和神经生物学文献的见解，建立了强烈的情感纽带对儿童发展的重要性。使用丰富的数据集，包含产前条件，家庭背景特征，出生结果，纳塔尔父母投资和7岁时多个孩子的结果，它检查投资是否随出生体重增加以及投资是否对出生体重较高的婴儿更有成效。更广泛的影响。研究结果可能会提供有关贫困持续存在的原因和最近在美国收入不平等的上升，产生重要的政策影响的重要见解。

Labor economists have long sought to identify the primary determinants of labor market earnings and economic status more generally with a theoretical and empirical focus on the role of human capital. An emerging literature in economics demonstrates the importance of early environmental conditions on human capital accumulation. To gain a better understanding of why early life conditions matter, however, one must turn to recent research conducted by psychologists and neurobiologists that has shown how ?the interaction between genetics and early experience literally shapes brain architecture.? This interdisciplinary project studies the role of prenatal conditions and postnatal environments in determining human capital and future economic status. The analysis is based on an economic framework and uses econometric methods to establish causality, but incorporates evidence and insights from the fields of developmental psychology and neurobiology in order to gain a better understanding of how and why early conditions appear to have such a significant effect on adult economic outcomes. The team of investigators includes an economist, developmental psychologist and epidemiologist/developmental psychologist. The project consists of two related analyses. The first explores the role of prenatal conditions, and in particular, exposure to high levels of stress hormones (cortisol), in the perpetuation of intergenerational inequality. Previous research has attributed intergenerational correlations in earnings to either genetic heritance of ability or the greater investment of high income parents in their children?s human capital. This project examines the role of another mechanism in perpetuating intergenerational inequality ? prenatal programming via in utero exposure to stress. Prenatal programming refers to the action of a factor during a sensitive period or window of fetal development that exerts organizational effects that persist throughout life. Researchers have found that poor women and black women display elevated levels of cortisol and that in-utero exposure to high levels of cortisol leads to reduced cognitive functioning of offspring via damage to the hippocampus. In this context, prenatal programming can potentially explain not only reduced economic status later in life but also the intergenerational transmission of economic status and why persistent poverty may be greater for some groups (i.e., blacks) than others. The second analysis explores how birthweight and parental investments might interact to affect long term outcomes. It focuses on birthweight because it is the most common measure of the overall health of the child at birth and has been linked with increased infant mortality, reduced educational attainment and earnings, and reduced IQ. This work follows that of Almond, Chay and Lee (2005) and Black, Devereaux and Salvanes (2007) who find that once one controls for maternal heterogeneity that may bias results, birthweight has little effect on short term outcomes but large effects on long term outcomes. They hypothesize that post-natal parental investments may interact with birthweight to significantly affect long term outcomes but do not have the data to test this. This project relies on insights from the psychological and neurobiological literature establishing the importance of strong emotional bonding for child development. Using a rich dataset that contains information on prenatal conditions, family background characteristics, birth outcomes, post natal parental investments and multiple child outcomes at age 7, it examines whether investments increase with birthweight as well as whether investments are more productive for higher birthweight babies. Broader Impacts. The results may provide important insights regarding the causes of persistence of poverty and the recent rise in earnings inequality in the US, yielding important policy implications.