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How Much Does Birth Weight Matter for Child Health in Developing Countries? Estimates from Siblings and Twins

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  • Mark E. McGovern

Abstract

200 million children globally are not meeting their growth potential, and as a result will suffer the consequences in terms of future outcomes. I examine the effects of birth weight on child health and growth using information from 66 countries. I account for missing data and measurement error using instrumental variables, and adopt an identification strategy based on siblings and twins. I find a consistent effect of birth weight on mortality risk, stunting, wasting, and coughing, with some evidence for fever, diarrhoea and anaemia. Bounds analysis indicates that coefficients may be substantially underestimated due to mortality selection. Improving the pre-natal environment is likely to be important for helping children reach their full potential.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark E. McGovern, 2018. "How Much Does Birth Weight Matter for Child Health in Developing Countries? Estimates from Siblings and Twins," CHaRMS Working Papers 18-04, Centre for HeAlth Research at the Management School (CHaRMS).
    • Handle: RePEc:qub:charms:1804
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    1. How Much Does Birth Weight Matter for Child Health in Developing Countries? Estimates from Siblings and Twins
      by Mark McGovern in Economics, Psychology and Policy on 2014-02-03 22:58:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Bhalotra, Sonia & Clarke, Damian, 2022. "Analysis of Twins," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1428, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Savelyev, Peter A. & Ward, Benjamin C. & Krueger, Robert F. & McGue, Matt, 2022. "Health endowments, schooling allocation in the family, and longevity: Evidence from US twins," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    3. M. Perez-Alvarez & M. Favara, 2023. "Children having children: early motherhood and offspring human capital in India," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1573-1606, July.
    4. Babak Jahanshahi & Brian Johnston & Mark E. McGovern & Duncan McVicar & Dermot O’Reilly & Neil Rowland & Stavros Vlachos, 2024. "Prenatal exposure to particulate matter and infant birth outcomes: Evidence from a population‐wide database," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(9), pages 2182-2200, September.
    5. Choi, Jin-young & Lee, Myoung-jae, 2019. "Twins are more different than commonly believed, but made less different by compensating behaviors," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 18-31.
    6. Weihui Zhang & Tse-Chuan Yang, 2021. "Maternal Smoking and Infant Low Birth Weight: Exploring the Biological Mechanism Through the Mother’s Pre-pregnancy Weight Status," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(2), pages 211-229, April.
    7. Mark E. McGovern, 2019. "How much does birth weight matter for child health in developing countries? Estimates from siblings and twins," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 3-22, January.
    8. Nadja Klein & Thomas Kneib & Giampiero Marra & Rosalba Radice & Slawa Rokicki & Mark E. McGovern, 2018. "Mixed Binary-Continuous Copula Regression Models with Application to Adverse Birth Outcomes," CHaRMS Working Papers 18-06, Centre for HeAlth Research at the Management School (CHaRMS).
    9. McGovern, Mark E., 2014. "Comparing the relationship between stature and later life health in six low and middle income countries," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 4(C), pages 128-148.
    10. Bladimir Carrillo & Jose G. Feres, 2018. "The Short-Tem Impacts Of Low Birth Weight On Health: Evidence From Brazil," Anais do XLIV Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 44th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 219, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Birth Weight; Child Health; Mortality Selection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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