Effects of Prenatal and Early Life Malnutrition: Evidence from the Greek Famine

Neelsen, Sven; Stratmann, Thomas

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1581344

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Effects of Prenatal and Early Life Malnutrition: Evidence from the Greek Famine

CESifo Working Paper Series No. 2994

35 Pages Posted: 12 Apr 2010

See all articles by Sven Neelsen

Sven Neelsen

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

Thomas Stratmann

George Mason University - Buchanan Center Political Economy; George Mason University - Mercatus Center; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

There are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: March 2010

Abstract

This paper examines the long run education and labor market effects from early-life exposure to the Greek 1941-42 famine. Given the short duration of the famine, we can separately identify the famine effects for cohorts exposed in utero, during infancy and at one year of age. We find that adverse outcomes due to the famine are largest for infants. Further, in our regression analysis we exploit the fact that the famine was more severe in urban than in rural areas. Consistent with our prediction, we find that urban-born cohorts show larger negative impacts on educational outcomes than the rural-born cohorts.

Keywords: famine, health, regression discontinuity, Greece

JEL Classification: I10, I12, I29, J13, J24

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Neelsen, Sven and Stratmann, Thomas, Effects of Prenatal and Early Life Malnutrition: Evidence from the Greek Famine (March 2010). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 2994, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1581344 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1581344