Maternal age and infant health

Age at birth has been increasing for the past several decades in many countries. 

Professor Bora will talk about a study comparing the health at birth of children from women who were born in January versus the previous December. To identify causal effects, the authors of the study exploit school entry cut-offs and the empirical finding that women who are older for their cohort in school tend to give birth later.

In Spain, children born in December start school a year earlier than those born the following January, despite being essentially the same age. Results show that January-born women finish school later, and are (several months) older when they marry and have their first child, who is more likely to have very low birthweight. 

The authors interpret the results as suggestive of a causal effect of maternal age on infant health, concentrated in the left tail of the birthweight distribution, with older mothers more likely to give birth to (very) premature babies.

This is a joint work with Libertad González and David Patiño.

This event will be particularly useful for those interested in quantitative social science, infant health and maternal age.

Related links

• QSS seminar series
• Quantitative Social Science (QSS)
• Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS)
• Social Research Institute