Maternal Stress and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from an Unexpected Earthquake Swarm

26 Pages Posted: 14 Oct 2019

See all articles by Andrea Kutinova Menclova

Andrea Kutinova Menclova

University of Canterbury - Economics and Finance

Steven Stillman

Free University of Bozen-Bolzano; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abstract

We examine the impact of a major earthquake that unexpectedly affected the Canterbury region of New Zealand on a wide-range of birth outcomes, including birth weight, gestational age and an indicator of general newborn health. We control for observed and unobserved differences between pregnant women in the area affected by the earthquake and other pregnant women by including mother fixed effects in all of our regression models. We extend the previous literature by comparing the impact of the initial unexpected earthquake to the impacts of thousands of aftershocks that occurred in the same region over the 18 months following the initial earthquake. We find that exposure to these earthquakes reduced gestational age, increased the likelihood of having a late birth and negatively affected newborn health - with the largest effects for earthquakes that occurred in the first and third trimesters of pregnancy. Our estimates are similar when we focus on just the impact of the initial earthquake or, in contrast, on all earthquakes controlling for endogenous location decisions using an instrumental variables approach. This suggests that the previous estimates in the literature that use this approach are likely unbiased and that treatment effects are homogenous in the population. We present supporting evidence that the likely channel for these adverse effects is maternal stress.

Keywords: maternal stress, pregnancy, earthquakes, birth weight, Apgar score

JEL Classification: I12, J13, I31

Suggested Citation

Kutinova Menclova, Andrea and Stillman, Steven, Maternal Stress and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from an Unexpected Earthquake Swarm. IZA Discussion Paper No. 12646, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3468594 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3468594

Andrea Kutinova Menclova (Contact Author)

University of Canterbury - Economics and Finance ( email )

Private Bag 4800
Christchurch
New Zealand

Steven Stillman

Free University of Bozen-Bolzano ( email )

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39100 Bozen-Bolzano (BZ), Bozen 39100
Italy

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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