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Do lower birth weight babies have lower grades? Twin fixed effect and instrumental variable method evidence from Taiwan

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  • Lin, Ming-Jen
  • Liu, Jin-Tan

Abstract

By combining two unique Taiwanese datasets, this paper investigates how birth weight affects grades at age 15 years. To tackle the endogeneity problem caused by omitted variables, we first compare birth weight and grade variation within twins. We find that birth weight does increase grades but only when both twins weigh less than 3000Â g at birth, which indicates that the effect is non-linear, and when the weight difference between the twins is larger than 200Â g. Furthermore, twin fixed effect estimates are similar to the ordinary least squares (OLSs) ones. We then use the public health budget and the number of doctors in the county where the children were born as instrumental variables for the children's birth weight. We found that instrumental variable estimates are significant only for the less educated (

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  • Lin, Ming-Jen & Liu, Jin-Tan, 2009. "Do lower birth weight babies have lower grades? Twin fixed effect and instrumental variable method evidence from Taiwan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 1780-1787, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:68:y:2009:i:10:p:1780-1787
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    1. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2007. "From the Cradle to the Labor Market? The Effect of Birth Weight on Adult Outcomes," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(1), pages 409-439.
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    7. Ming-Jen Lin & Jin-Tan Liu & Shin-Yi Chou, 2007. "As Low Birth Weight Babies Grow, Can 'Good' Parents Buffer this Adverse Factor? A Research Note," NBER Working Papers 12857, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    12. Ming-Jen Lin & Jin-Tan Liu & Shin-Yi Chou, 2007. "As low birth weight babies grow, can well-educated parents buffer this adverse factor? A research note," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(2), pages 335-343, May.
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    15. repec:ucn:wpaper:10197/317 is not listed on IDEAS
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    Cited by:

    1. Almond, Douglas & Currie, Janet, 2011. "Human Capital Development before Age Five," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 15, pages 1315-1486, Elsevier.
    2. Mark E. Mcgovern, 2013. "Still Unequal at Birth: Birth Weight,Socio-economic Status and Outcomes at Age 9," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 44(1), pages 53-84.
    3. Nakamuro, Makiko & Uzuki, Yuka & Inui, Tomohiko, 2013. "The effects of birth weight: Does fetal origin really matter for long-run outcomes?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 53-58.
    4. Lin, Ming-Jen & Liu, Elaine M., 2014. "Does in utero exposure to Illness matter? The 1918 influenza epidemic in Taiwan as a natural experiment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 152-163.
    5. Shin-Yi Chou & Echu Liu & Min-Jen Lin & Jin-Tan Liu, 2015. "Better peers, better scores? A study of twin junior high school graduates in Taiwan," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(32), pages 3462-3481, July.
    6. Mao Nakayama & Midori Matsushima, 2023. "Age-related changes in the effect of birth weight on child development: findings from a Japanese Longitudinal Survey," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 177-197, January.
    7. Lin, Ming-Jen & Liu, Elaine M., 2014. "Does in utero exposure to Illness matter? The 1918 influenza epidemic in Taiwan as a natural experiment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 152-163.
    8. Maruyama, Shiko & Heinesen, Eskil, 2020. "Another look at returns to birthweight," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    9. Santosh Kumar & Kaushalendra Kumar & Ramanan Laxminarayan & Arindam Nandi, 2022. "Birth Weight and Cognitive Development during Childhood: Evidence from India," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 41(2), pages 155-175, June.
    10. Liu, Yunqiang & Zhu, Jialing & Li, Eldon Y. & Meng, Zhiyi & Song, Yan, 2020. "Environmental regulation, green technological innovation, and eco-efficiency: The case of Yangtze river economic belt in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    11. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    12. Zong‐Xian Xie & Shin‐Yi Chou & Jin‐Tan Liu, 2017. "The Short‐Run and Long‐Run Effects of Birth Weight: Evidence from Large Samples of Siblings and Twins in Taiwan," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(7), pages 910-921, July.
    13. Yuda, Michio, 2020. "Childhood health and future outcomes: Evidence from panel surveys for the Japanese population," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    14. Eide, Eric R. & Showalter, Mark H., 2011. "Estimating the relation between health and education: What do we know and what do we need to know?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 778-791, October.
    15. Tifang Ye & Xiuli Xiang & Xiangyu Ge & Keling Yang, 2022. "Research on Green Finance and Green Development Based Eco-Efficiency and Spatial Econometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-29, February.

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