Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/335975 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 18327
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We leverage the introduction of the first antibiotic therapies in 1937 to examine the long-run effects of early-childhood pneumonia on adult educational attainment, employment, income, and work-related disability. Using census data, we document large average gains on all outcomes, alongside substantial heterogeneity by race and gender. On average, Black men exhibit smaller schooling gains than white men but larger employment and earnings gains. Among Black men (and women), we identify a pronounced gradient in gains linked to systemic racial discrimination in the pre–Civil Rights era: individuals born in more discriminatory Jim Crow states realized much smaller gains than those born in less discriminatory states. There is no similar gradient among white Americans. Women of both races exhibit smaller education and earnings gains than men on average, consistent with cultural and institutional barriers to women's work. Our findings highlight the role of opportunities in shaping the extent to which investments in early-life health translate into longer run economic gains.
Subjects: 
early childhood
medical innovation
race
human capital production
education
income
disability
systemic discrimination
institutions
infectious disease
pneumonia
antibiotics
sulfa drugs
JEL: 
I10
I14
J71
H70
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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