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Aggregate economic shocks and infant mortality: New evidence for middle-income countries

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  • Schady, Norbert
  • Smitz, Marc-Francois

Abstract

We provide country-specific estimates of the effect of macroeconomic shocks on infant mortality for a sample of mainly middle-income countries. In most countries, infant mortality appears to be pro-cyclical or acyclical. Only when shocks to GDP are very deep, 15% or larger, are they consistently associated with higher mortality.

Suggested Citation

  • Schady, Norbert & Smitz, Marc-Francois, 2010. "Aggregate economic shocks and infant mortality: New evidence for middle-income countries," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 145-148, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:108:y:2010:i:2:p:145-148
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    1. Rajeev Dehejia & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2004. "Booms, Busts, and Babies' Health," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(3), pages 1091-1130.
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    7. Sarah Baird & Jed Friedman & Norbert Schady, 2011. "Aggregate Income Shocks and Infant Mortality in the Developing World," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(3), pages 847-856, August.
    8. Friedman, Jed & Schady, Norbert, 2009. "How many more infants are likely to die in Africa as a result of the global financial crisis ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5023, The World Bank.
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    11. John Hoddinott & Bill Kinsey, 2001. "Child Growth in the Time of Drought," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 63(4), pages 409-436, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Cruces, Guillermo & Glüzmann, Pablo & Calva, Luis Felipe López, 2012. "Economic Crises, Maternal and Infant Mortality, Low Birth Weight and Enrollment Rates: Evidence from Argentina’s Downturns," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 303-314.
    2. Gonzalez, Fidel & Quast, Troy, 2010. "Mortality and business cycles by level of development: Evidence from Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(12), pages 2066-2073, December.
    3. Doerr, Sebastian & Hofmann, Boris, 2022. "Recessions and mortality: A global perspective," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    4. Cruces, Guillermo & Gluzmann, Pablo & Lopez-Calva, Luis Felipe, 2010. "Permanent Effects of Economic Crises on Household Welfare: Evidence and Projections from Argentina’s Downturns," MPRA Paper 42949, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Wen-Yi Chen, 2016. "Health progress and economic growth in the USA: the continuous wavelet analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 831-855, May.
    6. Asali , Muhammad, 2015. "Recessions are not good for your health: the counter-cyclical health outcomes revisited," European Economic Letters, European Economics Letters Group, vol. 4(1), pages 11-14.
    7. Pérez-Moreno, Salvador & Blanco-Arana, María C. & Bárcena-Martín, Elena, 2016. "Economic cycles and child mortality: A cross-national study of the least developed countries," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 14-23.
    8. Pierre-Emmanuel Darpeix, 2019. "Literature review on the consequences of food price spikes and price volatility," Working Papers hal-02072329, HAL.
    9. G. Naline & Brinda Viswanathan, 2017. "Predictors of Age-Specific Childhood Mortality in India," Working Papers 2017-167, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    10. Grace Lepone & Joakim Westerholm & Danika Wright, 2023. "Speculative trading preferences of retail investor birth cohorts," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 555-574, March.
    11. Jed Friedman & Norbert Schady, 2013. "How Many Infants Likely Died In Africa As A Result Of The 2008–2009 Global Financial Crisis?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(5), pages 611-622, May.
    12. Grant Miller & B. Piedad Urdinola, 2010. "Cyclicality, Mortality, and the Value of Time: The Case of Coffee Price Fluctuations and Child Survival in Colombia," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(1), pages 113-155, February.
    13. Pierre-Emmanuel Darpeix, 2019. "Literature review on the consequences of food price spikes and price volatility," PSE Working Papers hal-02072329, HAL.
    14. Wang, Shaobin & Wu, Jun, 2020. "Spatial heterogeneity of the associations of economic and health care factors with infant mortality in China using geographically weighted regression and spatial clustering," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    15. Edit V. Velenyi & Marc F. Smitz, 2014. "Cyclical Patterns in Government Health Expenditures Between 1995 and 2010," Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Discussion Paper Series 87885, The World Bank.
    16. Angelini, Viola & Mierau, Jochen O., 2014. "Born at the right time? Childhood health and the business cycle," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 35-43.

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    Keywords

    Income shocks Infant mortality;

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