School starting age, maternal age at birth, and child outcomes

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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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Date

2022-07

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Department of Economics

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Language

en

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JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS, Volume 84

Abstract

This paper analyses the effects of maternal age at birth on children's short and long-term outcomes using Finnish register data. We exploit a school starting age rule for identification. Mothers who are born after the school entry cut-off give birth at higher age, but total fertility and earnings are unaffected. Being born after the cut-off reduces gestation and, hence, child birth weight. The effects on birth weight and gestation are rather small, however, suggesting that the long-run impacts may be limited. Accordingly, we find no impacts on longer-term child outcomes, such as educational attainment and adolescent crime rates. Thus, using this source of variation, we find no favorable average effects of maternal age at birth on child outcomes.

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Funding Information: We thank seminar and session participants at UCL, SOFI, SOLE 2017, EALE 2018, ESPE 2019, Barcelona Summer Forum, 2020. Fredriksson gratefully acknowledges the financial support from Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation and Handelsbanken. Huttunen gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Finnish Academy. Publisher Copyright: © 2022

Keywords

Birth outcomes, Crime, Education, Fertility, Maternal age, School starting age

Other note

DOI

10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102637

Citation

Fredriksson, P, Huttunen, K & Öckert, B 2022, ' School starting age, maternal age at birth, and child outcomes ', Journal of Health Economics, vol. 84, 102637 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102637

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202208104558

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[article-cris] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ