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Long-Term Effects Of The 1959-1961 China Famine: Mainland China and Hong Kong

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Author Info
Douglas Almond
Lena Edlund
Hongbin Li
Junsen Zhang

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Abstract

This paper estimates the effects of maternal malnutrition exploiting the 1959-1961 Chinese famine as a natural experiment. In the 1% sample of the 2000 Chinese Census, we find that fetal exposure to acute maternal malnutrition had compromised a range of socioeconomic outcomes, including: literacy, labor market status, wealth and marriage market outcomes. Women married spouses with less education and later, as did men, if at all. In addition, maternal malnutrition reduced the sex ratio (males to females) in two generations -- those prenatally exposed and their children -- presumably through heightened male mortality. This tendency toward female offspring is interpretable in light of the Trivers-Willard (1973) hypothesis, according to which parents in poor condition should skew the offspring sex ratio toward daughters. Hong Kong natality micro data from 1984-2004 further confirm this pattern of female offspring among mainland-born residents exposed to malnutrition in utero.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 13384.

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Date of creation: Sep 2007
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13384

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Production
J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
P2 - Economic Systems - - Socialist Systems and Transition Economies

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Tue Gørgens & Xin Meng & Rhema Vaithianathan, 2007. "Stunting and Selection Effects of Famine: A Case Study of the Great Chinese Famine," IZA Discussion Papers 2543, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  2. Anne Case & Darren Lubotsky & Christina Paxson, 2002. "Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the Gradient," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1308-1334, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Karen Norberg, 2004. "Partnership Status and the Human Sex Ratio at Birth," NBER Working Papers 10920, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Wei Li and Dennis Tao Yang, 2005. "The Great Leap Forward: Anatomy of a Central Planning Disaster," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(4), pages 840-877, August.
  5. Zhehui Luo & Ren Mu & Xiaobo Zhang, 2006. "Famine and Overweight in China," Review of Agricultural Economics, American Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 28(3), pages 296-304, 09. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo & Gilles Postel-Vinay & Timothy M. Watts, 2007. "Long Run Health Impacts of Income Shocks: Wine and Phylloxera in 19th Century France," NBER Working Papers 12895, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Banerjee, Abhijit & Duflo, Esther & Postel-Vinay, Gilles & Watts, Tim, 2007. "Long Run Impacts of Income Shocks: Wine and Phylloxera in 19th Century France," CEPR Discussion Papers 6140, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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