IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ehbiol/v27y2017ipap281-288.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cyclical unemployment and infant health

Author

Listed:
  • Kaplan, Erin K.
  • Collins, Courtney A.
  • Tylavsky, Frances A.

Abstract

This study provides evidence on the effect of cyclical unemployment on infant health. We match individual-level data from a detailed survey of mothers and their children in Memphis, TN, with 5-year average census-tract unemployment rates from the American Community Survey. Our findings indicate that a one percentage point increase in the local unemployment rate is associated with a statistically significant increase in the probability of having a low birthweight baby (a baby weighing less than 2500 grams). We also find evidence of a statistically significant decrease in gestational age. These effects are concentrated among infants born to mothers without a college education and into households earning less than $25,000 a year.

Suggested Citation

  • Kaplan, Erin K. & Collins, Courtney A. & Tylavsky, Frances A., 2017. "Cyclical unemployment and infant health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 27(PA), pages 281-288.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:27:y:2017:i:pa:p:281-288
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2017.08.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X16301381
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ehb.2017.08.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mihaela Onofrei & Anca-Florentina Vatamanu & Georgeta Vintilă & Elena Cigu, 2021. "Government Health Expenditure and Public Health Outcomes: A Comparative Study among EU Developing Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-13, October.
    2. De Cao, Elisabetta & McCormick, Barry & Nicodemo, Catia, 2022. "Does unemployment worsen babies’ health? A tale of siblings, maternal behaviour, and selection," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    3. Wang, Yang & Yang, Muzhe, 2019. "Long commutes to work during pregnancy and infant health at birth," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-17.
    4. Alessie, Rob & Angelini, Viola & Mierau, Jochen O. & Viluma, Laura, 2018. "Economic downturns and infant health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 162-171.
    5. Aparicio, Ainoa & González, Libertad & Vall Castelló, Judit, 2020. "Newborn health and the business cycle: The role of birth order," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    6. Janke, Katharina & Lee, Kevin & Propper, Carol & Shields, Kalvinder & Shields, Michael A., 2020. "Macroeconomic Conditions and Health in Britain: Aggregation, Dynamics and Local Area Heterogeneity," IZA Discussion Papers 13091, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Toffolutti, Veronica & Suhrcke, Marc, 2019. "Does austerity really kill?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 211-223.
    8. Shen, Menghan, 2018. "The effects of school desegregation on infant health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 104-118.
    9. Rivero Catalina & Acuna Pedro, 2021. "RETRACTED: Income Shocks and Child Mortality Rates: Evidence from Fluctuations in Oil Prices," Economics, Sciendo, vol. 9(1), pages 69-83, June.
    10. Noghanibehambari, Hamid, 2022. "Intergenerational health effects of Medicaid," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    11. Balsa, Ana I. & Triunfo, Patricia, 2022. "The COVID-19 pandemic and birth outcomes in 2020: The role of prenatal care and other channels," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unemployment; Recession; Infant Health; Birthweight;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:27:y:2017:i:pa:p:281-288. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622964 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.