Does Grief Transfer Across Generations? In-Utero Deaths and Child Outcomes

52 Pages Posted: 1 Jul 2014

See all articles by Sandra E. Black

Sandra E. Black

Columbia University; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - Department of Economics

Paul J. Devereux

University College Dublin - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Kjell G. Salvanes

Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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Date Written: March 27, 2014

Abstract

While much is now known about the effects of physical health shocks to pregnant women on the outcomes of the in-utero child, we know little about the effects of psychological stresses. One clear form of stress to the mother comes from the death of a parent. We examine the effects of the death of the mother’s parent during pregnancy on both the short-run and the long-run outcomes of the infant. Our primary specification involves using mother fixed effects — comparing the outcomes of two children with the same mother but where a parent of the mother died during one of the pregnancies — augmented with a control for whether there is a death around the time of the pregnancy in order to isolate true causal effects of a bereavement during pregnancy. We find small negative effects on birth outcomes, and these effects are bigger for boys than for girls. The effects on birth outcomes seems to be driven by deaths due to cardiovascular causes suggesting that sudden deaths are more difficult to deal with. However, we find no evidence of adverse effects on adult outcomes. The results are robust to alternative specifications.

Keywords: Intergenerational mobility, grief, children, health shocks

JEL Classification: I1, I2, J13

Suggested Citation

Black, Sandra E. and Devereux, Paul J. and Salvanes, Kjell G., Does Grief Transfer Across Generations? In-Utero Deaths and Child Outcomes (March 27, 2014). NHH Dept. of Economics Discussion Paper No. 23/2014, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2460713 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2460713

Sandra E. Black

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Paul J. Devereux

University College Dublin - Department of Economics ( email )

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IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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Germany

Kjell G. Salvanes (Contact Author)

Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - Department of Economics ( email )

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+47 5 595 9543 (Fax)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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Germany

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