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Assessing the impact of in utero exposure to famine on fecundity: Evidence from the 1959-61 famine in China

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  • Shige Song

Abstract

This study identifies a significant increase in sterility among rural, but not urban, Chinese women who were conceived and born during the 1959-61 famine that resulted from the Great Leap Forward. Applied to data from two large-scale, nationally representative, sample surveys of Chinese women of childbearing age conducted in 1997 and 2001 by the State Family Planning Commission, difference-in-differences analysis revealed that exposure to the famine while in the womb caused an increase in the risk of sterility amongst the adult women surveyed of 1.1 per cent. This is a substantial increase given that the overall prevalence of primary and permanent sterility is only slightly over 1 per cent in China. These findings support the hypothesis that a woman exposed to acute malnutrition while in the womb may experience a long-term negative impact on her reproductive system, which could result in permanently impaired fecundity.

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  • Shige Song, 2013. "Assessing the impact of in utero exposure to famine on fecundity: Evidence from the 1959-61 famine in China," Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 67(3), pages 293-308, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rpstxx:v:67:y:2013:i:3:p:293-308
    DOI: 10.1080/00324728.2013.774045
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    Cited by:

    1. Shige Song, 2013. "Prenatal malnutrition and subsequent foetal loss risk: Evidence from the 1959-1961 Chinese famine," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 29(26), pages 707-728.
    2. Song, Shige, 2014. "Evidence of adaptive intergenerational sex ratio adjustment in contemporary human populations," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 14-21.
    3. Cheng, Zhiming & Guo, Wei & Hayward, Mathew & Smyth, Russell & Wang, Haining, 2021. "Childhood adversity and the propensity for entrepreneurship: A quasi-experimental study of the Great Chinese Famine," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1).
    4. Alexandra Moraru & Maria Moitinho De Almeida & Jean-Marie Degryse, 2018. "PALTEM: What Parameters Should Be Collected in Disaster Settings to Assess the Long-Term Outcomes of Famine?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-32, April.
    5. Song, Shige, 2013. "Identifying the intergenerational effects of the 1959–1961 Chinese Great Leap Forward Famine on infant mortality," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 474-487.

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