Being born under adverse economic conditions leads to a higher cardiovascular mortality rate later in life: evidence based on individuals born at different stages of the business cycle

Abstract

Working papers of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research receive only limited review. Views or opinions expressed in working papers are attributable to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute. Being born under adverse economic conditions leads to a higher cardiovascular mortality rate later in life: evidence based on individuals born at different stages of the business cycle

The Relative Effects of Shocks in Early‐ and Later‐Life Conditions on Mortality

“…Some previous research has suggested that early-life conditions may be more critical than period conditions for old-age mortality (Finch and crimmins 2004) or that, even if period conditions are more important, early-life conditions proxied by a cohort's early mortality could still have a key role (barbi and vaupel 2005). this study adds to the accumulating evidence suggesting that at the cohort level, early-life mortality conditions may not be a critical predictor of adult and old-age mortality (bruckner and catalano 2009; Gagnon and mazan 2009;van den berg, doblhammer, and christensen 2009). the findings of this study are also consistent with murphy (2010), who finds that period factors may be more important than cohort factors in determining mortality.…”

“…it is possible that early-life conditions exert important influences on cohorts' laterlife mortality, but that early-life mortality conditions generally do not capture the important aspects of early-life conditions. For example, van den berg and colleagues (van den berg, lindeboom, and Portrait 2006;van den berg, doblhammer-Reiter, and christensen 2008;van den berg, doblhammer, and christensen 2009) found that early-life macroeconomic conditions predict cohorts' later mortality: being born in a recession, for example, increases later mortality. cutler, miller, and norton (2007), however, did not identify any health effects in later life for persons born during the depression of the 1930s.…”

“…indeed, it has been shown that early-life conditions and adult health and mortality are linked at the both individual and cohort levels. However, the evidence regarding the importance of a cohort's early-life conditions on later mortality is mixed and debated (bengtsson and lindstrom 2000; Finch and crimmins 2004;barbi and vaupel 2005;catalano and bruckner 2006;bengtsson and broström 2009;bengtsson and mineau 2009;Gagnon and mazan 2009;van den berg, doblhammer, and christensen 2009). in short, the absolute and relative importance of a cohort's early-life experiences for later mortality is uncertain, although it is well recognized that period conditions shape period mortality patterns (see, for example, oeppen and vaupel 2002).…”

Every Breath You Take - Every Dollar You'll Make: The Long-Term Consequences of the Clean Air Act of 1970

“…However, there may exist local and transitory determinants of long-run outcomes that also covary with ambient air pollution. For example, local economic conditions are both strong predictors of ambient TSP (Chay and Greenstone, 2003b) and have been shown to affect infant health and fertility decisions (Dehejia and Lleras-Muney, 2004;Lindo, 2011;Schaller, 2012) as well as long-run mortality (Van den Berg et al, 2011;Van Den Berg et al, 2006). Any unobserved transitory local shocks that covary with both TSP and long-run outcomes will lead to bias in the OLS estimate of β 1 .…”

Dust to Feed, Dust to Grey: The Effect of In-Utero Exposure to the Dust Bowl on Old-Age Longevity

“…Therefore, disturbances in the initial health capital during this critical period could lead to disruptions in the pathways of later-life outcomes. For instance, studies document negative short-term and long-term consequences of in-utero and early-life exposures to income shocks, agricultural crop failure, pollution, natural disasters, stress, toxic chemicals, and nutritional shocks (Baird et al, 2016;Billings & Schnepel, 2018;Lindeboom et al, 2010;Sanders, 2012;Scholte et al, 2015;Torche, 2018;van den Berg et al, 2011). These prenatal and early life shocks can be translated into adverse health outcomes during infancy and early childhood, which in turn appear in a wide array of medium-run and long-run outcomes, including cognitive development (Aizer et al, 2016;Berthelon et al, 2021), test scores (Sanders, 2012;Shah & Steinberg, 2017), educational attainments (Almond et al, 2009;Fuller, 2014), adulthood earnings (Behrman & Rosenzweig, 2004;Black et al, 2007), health during adulthood (Maruyama & Heinesen, 2020), hospitalization during adulthood (Miller & Wherry, 2019), and later-life old-age mortality outcomes (Goodman-Bacon, 2021;van den Berg et al, 2011).…”