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Maternal Age and Offspring Human Capital in India

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  • Perez Alvarez, Marcello
  • Favara, Marta

Abstract

The consequences of early motherhood for the offspring are severely understudied, especially in low- and middle-income countries, where this phenomenon is prevalent. Using panel data from India, this paper investigates the effect of early maternal age on offspring human capital in terms of health and cognition. The analysis relies on mother fixed effects to allow for mother unobserved heterogeneity and explores for the first time the evolution of effects over time, covering the offspring phases of childhood and early adolescence. Our results indicate that children born to early mothers are shorter for their age and perform poorer in the math test, with stronger effects for (female) offspring born to very young mothers. Interestingly, the Adolescent Motherhood, Human Capital, Child Development, Cognition, Health, Nutrition, Gender, Parenting effect on health weakens over time, while the cognition effect surges in early adolescence. Further analysis suggests both biological and behavioral factors as transmission channels.

Suggested Citation

  • Perez Alvarez, Marcello & Favara, Marta, 2020. "Maternal Age and Offspring Human Capital in India," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224656, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc20:224656
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    Cited by:

    1. Fredriksson, Peter & Huttunen, Kristiina & Öckert, Björn, 2022. "School starting age, maternal age at birth, and child outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Rajesh Kumar Rai & S. V. Subramanian & Sebastian Vollmer, 2022. "Association of parental characteristics with offspring anthropometric failure, anaemia and mortality in India," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Adolescent Motherhood; Human Capital; Child Development; Cognition; Health; Nutrition; Gender; Parenting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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