Abstract
We studied whether in utero exposure to economic hardship during a grandmother’s pregnancy has a transgenerational effect on her grandchildren's health condition. We used an individual-level three-generation data set covering people born between 1734 and 1840 in the municipality of Rendalen in Norway. We found a culling effect in which grandchildren whose grandmothers gave birth in years of economic hardship lived approximately ten years longer than grandchildren whose mothers were born in years of economic well-being. This impact was only observed among the grandmothers who belong to the lowest social classes. Our results also showed that in higher social classes, economic hardship during a grandmother’s pregnancy deteriorated her grandchildren’s health by “scarring” the mother’s health.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 101060 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-9 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Economics and Human Biology |
| Volume | 43 |
| Early online date | 2 Sept 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2021 |
Funding
This study's funding source is the High North Population Studies (HighNoPos) project of UiT the Arctic University of Norway.
| Funders |
|---|
| Universitetet i Tromsø |
Keywords
- Culling effect
- Economic hardship
- Historical population
- Scarring effect
- Transgenerational effects
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Transgenerational health effects of in utero exposure to economic hardship: Evidence from preindustrial Southern Norway'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Cite this
- APA
- Author
- BIBTEX
- Harvard
- Standard
- RIS
- Vancouver