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What doesn’t kill her, will make her depressed

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  • Li, Yanan
  • Sunder, Naveen

Abstract

In this paper we study the long run effects of the 1959–61 Chinese Famine on mental health outcomes. We focus on cohorts that were born during the famine and examine their mental health as adults, when they are roughly 55 years of age. We find that early-life exposure to this famine leads to a large statistically significant negative impact on women’s mental health, while there is limited effect on men. This gender differential effect is observed because male fetuses experience a stronger natural selection as compared to female fetuses, which implies that in the longer run, surviving females may exhibit larger detrimental effects of early-life famine exposure. Thus, the observed effects are a composite of two well-established factors, the survival of the fittest and the Fetal Origins hypothesis.

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  • Li, Yanan & Sunder, Naveen, 2021. "What doesn’t kill her, will make her depressed," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:43:y:2021:i:c:s1570677x21000897
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101064
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • N35 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Asia including Middle East
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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