East Asia Workshop: Politics, Economy and Society Presents

 

The Lasting Impact of Parental Early Life Malnutrition on Their Offspring: Evidence from the China Great Leap Forward Famine

Belton Fleisher

Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics

Ohio State University

 

4:30-6pm, Tuesday

February 11, 2014

Pick Lounge, 5828 South University Ave.

 

Abstract
We explore whether the second generation’s level of schooling is negatively impacted by their parents’ malnutrition in utero, using the China Famine as a natural experiment. We find that famine-induced  mother’s malnutrition reduced second generation male and female entrance into junior secondary school by about 5-7 percentage points. We measure famine severity with provincial excess death rates instrumented by measures of adverse climate conditions. Our findings indicate the existence of an important second-generation multiplier of policies that support the nutrition of pregnant women and infants in any country where nutritional deficiencies remain today.

 

Workshop website: http://cas.uchicago.edu/workshops/eastasia/

Student coordinator: Junyan Jiang (junyanjiang@uchicago.edu)

Faculty sponsors: Dali Yang, Dingxin Zhao and Zheng Michael Song

This presentation is sponsored by the Council on Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, Center for East Asian Studies, and the Confucius Institute. Persons with disabilities who believe they may need assistance please contact the student coordinator in advance.