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Childhood Health and Human Capital: New Evidence from Genetic Brothers in Arms

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  • Parman, John

Abstract

Negative shocks to childhood health can have a lasting impact on the economic success of an individual by altering families' schooling investment decisions. This article introduces a new dataset of brothers serving in World War II and uses it to demonstrate that improvements in childhood health led to substantial increases in educational attainment in the first one-half of the twentieth century. By exploiting variation in health within families, the data show that this relationship between childhood health and educational attainment holds even after controlling for both observed and unobserved household and environmental characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Parman, John, 2015. "Childhood Health and Human Capital: New Evidence from Genetic Brothers in Arms," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(1), pages 30-64, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:75:y:2015:i:01:p:30-64_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Timothy J. Hatton, 2015. "Stature and Sibship: Historical Evidence," CEH Discussion Papers 039, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    2. Parman, John, 2015. "Childhood health and sibling outcomes: Nurture Reinforcing nature during the 1918 influenza pandemic," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 22-43.
    3. Nicholas Ford & Kristin Ranestad & Paul Sharp, 2022. "Leaving Their Mark: Using Danish Student Grade Lists to Construct a More Detailed Measure of Historical Human Capital," Rivista di storia economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 29-56.
    4. Hoyt Bleakley & Dora Costa & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2014. "Health, Education, and Income in the United States, 1820–2000," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital in History: The American Record, pages 121-159, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Cook, Lisa D. & Logan, Trevon D. & Parman, John M., 2014. "Distinctively black names in the American past," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 64-82.
    6. Persaud, Alexander, 2023. "Historical height measurement consistency: Evidence from colonial Trinidad," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    7. Ewout Depauw & Deborah Oxley, 2017. "Toddlers, teenagers & terminal heights: The determinants of adult male stature Flanders 1800-76," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _157, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. Gallardo-Albarrán, Daniel, 2018. "Health and economic development since 1900," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 228-237.
    9. Krzysztof Karbownik & Anthony Wray, 2019. "Educational, Labor-market and Intergenerational Consequences of Poor Childhood Health," NBER Working Papers 26368, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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