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Impacts Of Prenatal Ramadan Exposure On Outcomes In Adulthood : Evidence From Indonesia

dc.contributor.authorKim, Min-Taecen_US
dc.contributor.chairAbowd, John Maronen_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberBlalock, Garricken_US
dc.date.accessioned2014-07-28T19:28:05Z
dc.date.available2014-07-28T19:28:05Z
dc.date.issued2014-05-25en_US
dc.description.abstractThis paper presents reduced-form estimates of the impact of prenatal shocks on adult outcomes. The widespread fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan is utilised as a natural experiment in order to estimate the impact of a relatively mild shock to individuals during gestation on socio-economic, education and health outcomes in adulthood. Previous literature shows that Ramadan observance during pregnancy is both common and detrimental to fetal health. Using the fourth-wave of the Indonesian Family Life Survey, individuals in adulthood are estimated to earn 11.4% less and have 3.8% less years of education if the month of Ramadan overlapped in full with the first trimester of gestation. The impact of the effect remains significant for the second and third trimester of gestation but declines in magnitude. Height and weight in adulthood are also found to be significantly lower for men, but this does not hold for women. The contrast in results between these biological indicators and economic outcomes suggests that there may be significant differences in compensating investment by gender. The channels of effect for the main results remains largely unknown, but there is little evidence to suggest that differing levels of physical health and/or mental cognition are the key channels of effect. Theese results suggest that the impacts of even a mild prenatal shock may be significant and persistent, but also relatively subtle in their expression.en_US
dc.identifier.otherbibid: 8641208
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/37177
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.titleImpacts Of Prenatal Ramadan Exposure On Outcomes In Adulthood : Evidence From Indonesiaen_US
dc.typedissertation or thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineEconomics
thesis.degree.grantorCornell Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelMaster of Arts
thesis.degree.nameM.A., Economics

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