Fetal Malnutrition And Academic Success: Evidence From Muslim Immigrants In Denmark

Greve, Jane; Schultz-Nielsen, Marie Louise; Tekin, Erdal

doi:10.3386/w21545

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The average "ideal number of children" for women in Punjab is 3.8. Greve et al, 2015;Karimi & Basu, 2018;Oosterbeek & van der Klaauw, 2013). Each of these studies emphasizes that not only do early investments matter but increasingly the earliest investments might matter the most for child health.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Son‐biased fertility stopping, birth spacing, and child nutritional status in Pakistan

Chaudhry

Khan

Mir

2021

Review Development Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article, we append information from four cross-sectional household surveys (Multiple Indictors Cluster Survey of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) in Punjab, Pakistan, collected between 2007 and2018 to create a data set of 140,000-150,000 child-level observations. Using linear regression, we document a strongly negative birth-order gradient in the nutritional status (measured as height-for-age z-scores) of children below age 5, indicating a pattern of disinvestment in later-born children that is even greater than that documented for poorer countries in sub-Saharan Africa in an earlier study. Consistent with other empirical work in developing-country contexts, girls have on average higher z-scores than boys, but their advantage is lower in Pakistan than other countries outside of the South Asian region, and worryingly, the negative birth-order gradient is steeper for girls than boys. Son-biased fertility stopping rules and close-birth spacing appear to play key roles in Pakistan; following the birth of daughters, parents reduce contraceptive use and breastfeeding (a natural birth control). Using an IV strategy based on the genders of the previously born children, we find that shortened intervals between births harm children's nutritional status, especially that of boys. | 713CHAUDHRY et Al. | INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEWPakistan's population growth rate remains high compared to the rest of South Asia at 2.2% per annum, and it is now the world's fifth most populous country. Because of its population growth, the country has struggled to develop its human capital, in terms of both nutrition and educational achievement. 1 Continued high fertility (currently at 3.8 children per woman) will not only exacerbate these problems but will also make it difficult for the country to further progress in reducing child and maternal health undernutrition, key Millennium Development Goals that Pakistan failed to meet by the target date, 2015 (Rizvi et al., 2015). In this study, we aim at demonstrating how son-biased fertility stopping and short birth intervals are important to understanding both child malnutrition and excess fertility in Pakistan.While the disadvantages women and girls encounter have been a persistent concern for researchers, aid agencies, and policymakers, another less-discussed but important type of disinvestment in children and affecting both genders occurs with higher birth order. Therefore, earlier-born children tend to have better health outcomes than their younger siblings. Although a few studies suggest that later-born children are advantaged compared to earlier-born children when parents gain experience with additional pregnancies (Girma & Genebo, 2002), the majority of research demonstrates that first-born children are favored in terms of parental investment because they benefit from lack of sibling competition (Hatton & Martin, 2008), are born to younger mothers, or are expected to care for parents in their old age (Bhalotra & Attfield, 1998). Time is an endowment ...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Son‐biased fertility stopping, birth spacing, and child nutritional status in Pakistan

Chaudhry

Khan

Mir

2021

Review Development Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several papers confirm the long-standing Trivers-Willard hypothesis (Trivers and Willard, 1973) that in utero stress increases the mortality odds of male relative to female fetuses (Norberg, 2004;Almond and Edlund, 2007). Studies that test for impacts of maternal malnutrition and maternal nutrition supplementation on subsequent academic and labor market outcomes of children who were potentially exposed in utero, find robust, though generally modest, impacts on adult health, skills acquisition, and labor market outcomes (Almond and Mazumder, 2011;Field et al, 2009;Maccini and Yang, 2009;Almond et al, 2014;Hoynes et al, 2016;Greve et al, 2015). These studies do not, however, find consistent differential impacts by gender on post-natal outcomes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 80%

“…14 Greve et al (2015) find that fetal exposure to Ramadan has a larger negative impact on the achievement scores of Muslim girls than boys in Denmark. Hoynes et al (2016) find that improvements in in utero nutrition have a larger positive impact on economic self-sufficiency (an omnibus skills and earnings measure) and overall good health among exposed girls than boys, while impacts for the prevalence of metabolic syndrome show slightly greater benefits for exposed boys than girls.…”

mentioning

confidence: 81%

Family Disadvantage and the Gender Gap in Behavioral and Educational Outcomes

Autor¹,

Figlio²,

Karbownik³

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…No systematic selection in or out of participation in Ramadan fasting was found in other Ramadan studies, which examined other outcomes, as well (Almond & Mazumder, 2011;Greve, Schultz-nielsen, & Tekin, 2015;Karimi & Basu, 2018;Majid, 2015).…”

Section: Testing If Exposure To Ramadan Is Endogenousmentioning

confidence: 97%

Short‐term fetal nutritional stress and long‐term health: Child height

Karimi

Little

Mokhtari

2020

American J Hum Biol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: This study examined the impact of in utero exposure to Ramadan, the Islamic fasting month, by trimester on height at ages 0 to 18 for a sample of children from Tehran, Iran. If exposure to Ramadan is associated with significant nutritional stress to the fetus, the fetus's adaptive responses to nutritional insufficiency could manifest as changes in height during childhood, long before any effects on aging or disease risk at older ages.Methods: Children who were exposed and not exposed to Ramadan in utero were compared to identify any systematic difference between their parents' and households' characteristics (including height, age, education, and indicators of wealth). Also, the seasonal pattern of food consumption in Tehran was analyzed. Finally, the association of child height with prenatal exposure to Ramadan was measured, controlling for seasonality and parent and household.Results: Ramadan associated fasting in the second trimester of gestation was associated with 0.091 age-adjusted SDs (ie, 0.60-0.67 cm) decrease in children's height at age 10 years or older. The negative association was largest in male children and was approximately 1 cm at age 12 years or older among male children. Conclusion:Maternal Ramadan fasting in the second trimester, the critical period for long bone development, was associated with decreased height. Exposure to ritual fasting is important because approximately 75% of all Muslim children are exposed to Ramadan in utero.

show abstract

Fetal Malnutrition And Academic Success: Evidence From Muslim Immigrants In Denmark

Cited by 4 publications

References 10 publications

Son‐biased fertility stopping, birth spacing, and child nutritional status in Pakistan

Son‐biased fertility stopping, birth spacing, and child nutritional status in Pakistan

Family Disadvantage and the Gender Gap in Behavioral and Educational Outcomes

Short‐term fetal nutritional stress and long‐term health: Child height

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About