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The Winter’s Tale: Season of Birth Impacts on Children in China

Author

Listed:
  • Pushkar Maitra
  • Nidhiya Menon
  • Chau Tran

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of season of birth on height, cognitive ability, and non-cognitive ability of Chinese children. We find that the child's season of birth has a significant impact on the height of girls aged less than five years in agricultural households: girls born in winter have lower height as compared to girls born in other seasons. We find, however, that this relative height differential does not translate to deficits in cognitive and non-cognitive skills when girls are adolescents. We argue that compensating investments by parents, manifested through higher parental expectations on educational attainment for poorly endowed winter-born girls, is an explanation for why the initial height disadvantage does not have persisting implications in terms of ability when girls are older

Suggested Citation

  • Pushkar Maitra & Nidhiya Menon & Chau Tran, 2019. "The Winter’s Tale: Season of Birth Impacts on Children in China," Monash Economics Working Papers 09-18, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:mos:moswps:2018-09
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Child Health; Cognitive and Non Cognitive Skills; Compensating Investments; Season of Birth; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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