Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/58482 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6520
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The aim of this study is to assess the effects of economic conditions in early life on cause-specific mortality during adulthood. The analyses are performed on a unique historical sample of 14,520 Dutch individuals born in 1880-1918, who are followed throughout life. The economic conditions in early life are characterized using cyclical variations in annual real per capital Gross Domestic Product during pregnancy and the first year of life. Exposure to recessions during pregnancy and/or the first year of life appears to significantly increase all-cause mortality risks and cancer mortality risks of older males and females. It also significantly increases mortality risks due to cardiovascular diseases and chronic respiratory diseases of older females. The residual life expectancies are up to 4.5 to 8% lower for all-cause mortality and up to 1.5 to 7.8% lower for cause-specific mortality. Our analyses show that cardiovascular and cancer mortality risks are related and that not taking this association into account leads to biased inference.
Subjects: 
life expectancy
cancer
cardiovascular disease
survival analyses
competing mortality risks
recession
JEL: 
I12
C41
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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