The Intergenerational Consequences of Economic Distress: In-Utero Exposure to Financial Crises and Birth Outcomes / Mevlude Akbulut-Yuksel, Seyit M. Cilasun, Erdal Tekin, Belgi Turan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Cilasun, Seyit M.

Tekin, Erdal.

Turan, Belgi.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w30902.

NBER working paper series no. w30902

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2023.

Summary:

This paper uses the severe economic crisis in Turkey in 2008 as a quasi-experiment to evaluate the impact of worsening economic conditions during pregnancy on birth outcomes. Exploiting the temporal and spatial variations in economic hardship across provinces, we show that the deep economic downturn led to significantly lower birth weight. Furthermore, these effects are mainly observed in children born to mothers with low socioeconomic status, suggesting that credit constraints may be a significant factor in the impact of economic crises on birth outcomes in Turkey. Our study also demonstrates that mothers residing in provinces significantly hit by the economic recession are more likely to have premature babies and shorter gestational lengths, both of which elevate the prevalence of lower birth weight newborns. Finally, our analysis illustrates that selective fertility, abortion, and neonatal mortality are more common during an economic downturn, and play a significant role in explaining the impact on birth outcomes in our context.

Notes:

Print version record

January 2023.