IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/15836.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Parental Age and Birth Defects: A Sibling Study

Author

Listed:
  • Hvide, Hans K.
  • Salvanes, Kjell G
  • Johnsen, Julian

Abstract

Higher parental age at childbearing has generated much attention as a potential risk factor for birth disorders; however, previous research findings are mixed. Existing studies have exploited variation in parental age across families, which is problematic because families differ not only in parental age but also in genetic and environmental factors. To isolate the effects of parental age, holding many genetic and environmental factors constant, we exploit the variation in parental age within families and compare outcomes for full siblings. The study data were retrieved from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway, which covers the entire population of births in Norway over an extended period (totaling 1.2 million births). Using variation in parental age when siblings were born, we find large and convex effects of increased parental age on the increased risk of birth disorders. To facilitate comparison with the existing literature, we also estimate the effects of parental age using variation in parental age across families and find that the effects are substantially weaker. We conclude that the existing literature may have underestimated the negative effects of parental aging on adverse offspring outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Hvide, Hans K. & Salvanes, Kjell G & Johnsen, Julian, 2021. "Parental Age and Birth Defects: A Sibling Study," CEPR Discussion Papers 15836, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:15836
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP15836
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2005. "The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Children's Education," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 669-700.
    2. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    3. Samantha C Lean & Hayley Derricott & Rebecca L Jones & Alexander E P Heazell, 2017. "Advanced maternal age and adverse pregnancy outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-15, October.
    4. Reichman, N.E. & Teitler, J.O., 2006. "Paternal age as a risk factor for low birthweight," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(5), pages 862-866.
    5. Jacob L. Taylor & Jean-Christophe P. G. Debost & Sarah U. Morton & Emilie M. Wigdor & Henrike O. Heyne & Dennis Lal & Daniel P. Howrigan & Alex Bloemendal & Janne T. Larsen & Jack A. Kosmicki & Daniel, 2019. "Paternal-age-related de novo mutations and risk for five disorders," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Fredriksson, Peter & Huttunen, Kristiina & Öckert, Björn, 2022. "School starting age, maternal age at birth, and child outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rannveig Kaldager Hart & Sara Cools, 2017. "Identifying fertility contagion using random fertility shocks," Discussion Papers 861, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    2. Shuang Chen, 2020. "Parental Investment After the Birth of a Sibling: The Effect of Family Size in Low-Fertility China," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2085-2111, December.
    3. Menta, Giorgia & Lepinteur, Anthony, 2021. "Boys don’t cry (or do the dishes): Family size and the housework gender gap," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 164-188.
    4. Peter Hangoma & Arild Aakvik & Bjarne Robberstad, 2017. "Explaining changes in child health inequality in the run up to the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): The case of Zambia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-21, February.
    5. Long Thanh Giang & Cuong Viet Nguyen & Tuyen Quang Tran & Vu Thieu, 2017. "Does Firm Agglomeration Matter to Labor and Education of Local Children? Evidence in Vietnam," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 10(4), pages 1015-1041, December.
    6. Collins, Matthew, 2022. "Sibling Gender, Inheritance Customs and Educational Attainment: Evidence from Matrilineal and Patrilineal Societies," Working Papers 2022:5, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    7. Spears, Dean & Coffey, Diane & Behrman, Jere R., 2022. "Endogenous inclusion in the Demographic and Health Survey anthropometric sample: Implications for studying height within households," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    8. Ding, Feng & Du, Limin & Shi, Jinchuan, 2020. "Lucky to have a sister: The effects of unmarried sister on brother outcomes in late imperial China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    9. Lindskog, Annika, 2013. "The effect of siblings’ education on school-entry in the Ethiopian highlands," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 45-68.
    10. Janna Bergsvik & Sara Cools & Rannveig K. Hart, 2023. "Explaining Residential Clustering of Large Families," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-28, December.
    11. Christine Ho, 2019. "Child’s gender, parental monetary investments and care of elderly parents in China," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 741-774, September.
    12. Marc Klemp & Jacob Weisdorf, 2011. "The Child Quantity-Quality Trade-Off During the Industrial Revolution in England," Discussion Papers 11-16, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    13. Averi Chakrabarti & Karen A Grépin & Stéphane Helleringer, 2019. "The impact of supplementary immunization activities on routine vaccination coverage: An instrumental variable analysis in five low-income countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-11, February.
    14. Harold Alderman & John Hoddinott & Bill Kinsey, 2006. "Long term consequences of early childhood malnutrition," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(3), pages 450-474, July.
    15. Huh, Yesol & Kim, You Suk, 2023. "Cheapest-to-deliver pricing, optimal MBS securitization, and welfare implications," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(1), pages 68-93.
    16. Cabane, Charlotte & Hille, Adrian & Lechner, Michael, 2015. "Mozart or Pelé? The effects of teenagers’ participation in music and sports," Economics Working Paper Series 1509, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    17. Fan Li & Prashant Loyalka & Hongmei Yi & Yaojiang Shi & Natalie Johnson & Scott Rozelle, 2016. "Ability tracking and social capital in China's rural secondary school system," Working Papers of LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance 544339, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance.
    18. Paul Bingley & Lorenzo Cappellari & Konstantinos Tatsiramos, 2014. "Family, Community and Long-Term Earnings Inequality," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def017, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    19. Ji Yan & Sally Brocksen, 2013. "Adolescent risk perception, substance use, and educational attainment," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(8), pages 1037-1055, September.
    20. Sènakpon Fidèle A. Dedehouanou & Luca Tiberti & Hilaire G. Houeninvo & Djohodo Inès Monwanou, 2019. "Working while studying: Employment premium or penalty for youth in Benin?," Working Papers PMMA 2019-03, PEP-PMMA.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Birth defects; Birth and death processes; Fertility; Stillbirth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • I19 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Other

    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:cpr:ceprdp:15836. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.