Season of Birth and Later Outcomes: Old Questions, New Answers

36 Pages Posted: 29 Dec 2008 Last revised: 29 Oct 2022

See all articles by Kasey Buckles

Kasey Buckles

University of Notre Dame - Department of Economics

Daniel M. Hungerman

University of Notre Dame

Date Written: December 2008

Abstract

Research has found that season of birth is associated with later health and professional outcomes; what drives this association remains unclear. In this paper we consider a new explanation: that children born at different times in the year are conceived by women with different socioeconomic characteristics. We document large seasonal changes in the characteristics of women giving birth throughout the year in the United States. Children born in the winter are disproportionally born to women who are more likely to be teenagers and less likely to be married or have a high school degree. We show that controls for family background characteristics can explain up to half of the relationship between season of birth and adult outcomes. We then discuss the implications of this result for using season of birth as an instrumental variable; our findings suggest that, though popular, season-of-birth instruments may produce inconsistent estimates. Finally, we find that some of the seasonality in maternal characteristics is due to summer weather differentially affecting fertility patterns across socioeconomic groups.

Suggested Citation

Buckles, Kasey and Hungerman, Daniel M., Season of Birth and Later Outcomes: Old Questions, New Answers (December 2008). NBER Working Paper No. w14573, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1320799

Kasey Buckles

University of Notre Dame - Department of Economics ( email )

Notre Dame, IN 46556
United States

Daniel M. Hungerman (Contact Author)

University of Notre Dame ( email )

361 Mendoza College of Business
Notre Dame, IN 46556-5646
United States

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