Economics And Human Biology[JOURNAL]
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200 papers
Height self-selection of internal migrants in Italy in the second half of the twentieth century.
Lanari D, Crippa A, Pieroni L
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Feb · PMID 39817956 · Publisher ↗
This paper examines internal migrant selection in Italy using individual height data from the 1951 and 1980 birth cohorts of military conscripts. Information on both place of birth and residence of conscripts allows us t...
This paper examines internal migrant selection in Italy using individual height data from the 1951 and 1980 birth cohorts of military conscripts. Information on both place of birth and residence of conscripts allows us to compare migrants' heights to the height distributions of their non-migrant peers at the national level and to their populations of origin. Results suggest that migrants from southern Italy were negatively selected at the national level, while a positive selection in height emerged if compared to conscripts who remained in their macro-area of origin. Additionally, we found that migrants from shorter and economically disadvantaged southern regions exhibited a more positive self-selection in terms of education, occupation and health status. These findings remained consistent when using body mass index as an alternative anthropometric outcome or accounting for the North-South return migration in the more recent birth cohort of conscripts.
Did the COVID-19 pandemic change the importance of health for life satisfaction? Evidence from France.
Tessier P, Wolff FC
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Feb · PMID 39799840 · Publisher ↗
COVID-19 has brought health protection to the top of the political agenda in many countries, at the cost of reduced freedoms, social relationships, and economic opportunities. This context may have led individuals to pay...
COVID-19 has brought health protection to the top of the political agenda in many countries, at the cost of reduced freedoms, social relationships, and economic opportunities. This context may have led individuals to pay more attention to their health and to attach greater importance to it in life satisfaction. This paper examines the possibility of an increase in the correlation between life and health satisfaction after the onset of the pandemic using repeated cross-sectional data in France between 2016 and 2021 and an original jittering strategy to smooth the ordinal variables of life and health satisfaction in regression models of subjective well-being. The estimates show an increased correlation between health and life satisfaction for women aged 50 and over, but no change for men. However, the increase in correlation observed for older women disappears by the second half of 2021. These results are robust to several sensitivity analyses and lead to the conclusion that the COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly and permanently change the importance of personal health for life satisfaction.
Social capital and vaccination compliance: Evidence from Italy.
Montresor G, Schiavon L
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Feb · PMID 39778267 · Publisher ↗
Exploiting high-frequency vaccination data for COVID-19 and social capital measures at the municipal level in Italy between January and October 2021, this paper estimates the effect of social capital on vaccination compl...
Exploiting high-frequency vaccination data for COVID-19 and social capital measures at the municipal level in Italy between January and October 2021, this paper estimates the effect of social capital on vaccination compliance. We find that weekly vaccination coverage increased up to 1.60 percentage points more in municipalities with higher social capital. Results do not differ by gender and the effect is mainly driven by younger generations. Our findings shed light on the role of social capital as a driver of health protective behavior.
Cognitive or non-cognitive? The effect of maternal dominance on adolescent human capital: Evidence from adolescents' educational decisions.
Liu C, Ren F, Yang L … +2 more , Fan W, Huang X
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Feb · PMID 39765046 · Publisher ↗
Using data from the 2014 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study finds that when mothers hold dominant positions in their children's educational decisions, they are more likely to adopt a "tiger mom" approach. This...
Using data from the 2014 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study finds that when mothers hold dominant positions in their children's educational decisions, they are more likely to adopt a "tiger mom" approach. This dynamic explains why maternal dominance in educational decisions significantly enhances adolescents' cognitive abilities while hindering their non-cognitive skills. We propose time investment, material investment, and parenting styles as channel variables that offer a more comprehensive explanation. It is clear that as mothers have the decision-making authority in children's education, parents allocate more time to daily care and homework tutoring and provide additional extracurricular learning resources for adolescents, ultimately enhancing their cognitive abilities. Meanwhile, parents tend to be more demanding. Conversely, the mothers' dominance in the children's educational decisions results in reduced investment in leisure time, with no statistically significant effects on parents' responsiveness and activities related to talent development, mental growth, and parent-child bonding. The above three mechanisms indicate that when mothers hold dominant positions in their children's educational decisions, they are more likely to adopt a "tiger mom" approach to fostering their children's human capital development. These findings partially explain the negative effect on adolescents' non-cognitive abilities. In conclusion, these findings underscore the critical role of the tiger mom in shaping adolescents' cognitive and non-cognitive abilities. Efforts should be made to promote the holistic development of adolescents' cognitive and non-cognitive abilities.
How important is girls' 'Biological Head Start' in explaining gender differences in education and the labour market?
Røed M, Schøne P, Strøm M
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Feb · PMID 39754970 · Publisher ↗
We investigate whether gender differences in physical maturity during adolescence can explain gender differences in educational and labour market performance. Using survey data with measures of physical maturity linked t...
We investigate whether gender differences in physical maturity during adolescence can explain gender differences in educational and labour market performance. Using survey data with measures of physical maturity linked to register data on education and labour market outcomes, we analyse the importance of physical maturity for gender differences in both the short and long terms. The results show that gender differences in physical maturity partially explain both the gender gap in educational performance (in girls' favour) and the gender gap in labour market outcomes at age 33 (in boys' favour). Taken together, the results suggest that girls' physical head start gives them an advantage in the schooling system and that this advantage continues long into adulthood, indicating that the head start has long-lasting cumulative effects on learning.
Height development trends among 7-18-year-old school-age children in central plains of China between 2000 and 2019: A serial cross-sectional surveillance study in China.
Zhou F, Ding L, Li Y … +7 more , Hu J, Zhang J, Geng Y, Ban X, Wu W, Lou X, Wang X
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Feb · PMID 39740312 · Publisher ↗
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze changes in height of 7-18-year-old school-age children in China during the year of 2000-2019. METHODS: We used the survey data from the Chinese National Survey on Students'...
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze changes in height of 7-18-year-old school-age children in China during the year of 2000-2019. METHODS: We used the survey data from the Chinese National Survey on Students' Constitution and Health in Henan Province for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2014, and 2019. Data were categorized into subgroups based on geographic location, gender, and age; mean, standard deviation, and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used to analyze trends in height change among children and adolescents and the correlation between socioeconomic indicators and height change. RESULTS: The height of children and adolescents in Henan has shown a continuous upward trend. The height difference between urban and rural areas has gradually narrowed but has not disappeared. The correlation of height development trends between neighbouring urban areas was higher than in other areas. The level of medical care was significantly associated with the change in height for both boys (r = 0.950, p = 0.013) and girls (r = 0.897, p = 0.039); GDP per capita (r = 0.940，p = 0.018) was significantly associated with the change in height for boys only. CONCLUSION: The height of Chinese children and adolescents will continue to maintain a positive growth trend, but we need to pay attention to the health status and nutritional intake of children and adolescents in economically disadvantaged areas in order to narrow the height disparity between different socio-economic groups.
Minimum wages and alcohol consumption: Evidence from Canadian longitudinal microdata.
Bai Y, Veall MR
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Feb · PMID 39729694 · Publisher ↗
OBJECTIVE: The objective is to estimate the effect of provincial minimum wage increases in Canada on heavy drinking, binge drinking and average daily alcohol consumption. METHOD: We estimate standard regression models by...
OBJECTIVE: The objective is to estimate the effect of provincial minimum wage increases in Canada on heavy drinking, binge drinking and average daily alcohol consumption. METHOD: We estimate standard regression models by gender-age group with drinking behaviours as the dependent variables and the minimum wage among the independent variables. We employ the Canadian National Population Health Survey which began in 1994 and ended in 2011, a period comparable to that used by many U.S. STUDIES: The longitudinal feature of the Canadian microdata is an advantage over most U.S. datasets, allowing control for individual fixed effects, including unobserved propensities regarding alcohol. As in U.S. studies, estimation relies on differences in timing and size of minimum wage changes across jurisdictions. RESULTS: We find no consistent evidence that minimum wage increases increase drinking overall. Indeed, for less-educated males ages 26-64, we estimate that a $1 increase (about 15 %) in the real minimum wage would have reduced the prevalence of heavy drinking by 2.2 percentage points and average daily alcohol consumption by 0.15 standard drinks, with wild bootstrap 95 % confidence intervals (-4.3, -0.1) and (-0.28, -0.07) respectively. Our estimates for females are less consistent but some point towards modest increases in drinking. CONCLUSIONS: Besides our strongest finding of no evidence that minimum wages increase drinking overall, our findings can also be seen as consistent with earlier research on this same Canadian dataset that found minimum wage increases reduced stress in less-educated male workers.
The long-run and intergenerational impact of early exposure to the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-61 on mental health.
Tan CM, Zhang X, Zhang X
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Feb · PMID 39708612 · Publisher ↗
We study the effects of early exposure to the Great Chinese Famine on the mental health and subjective well-being of survivors as well as their offspring using data from the 2010 and 2014 waves of the China Family Panel...
We study the effects of early exposure to the Great Chinese Famine on the mental health and subjective well-being of survivors as well as their offspring using data from the 2010 and 2014 waves of the China Family Panel Studies. Our analysis focuses on K6 scores, severe mental illness, and life dissatisfaction. We find that early exposure to the famine has impaired the mental health outcomes of women, but not men (i.e., the first generation). For the second generation, negative effects only show up among the sons of male famine survivors. Some preliminary evidence suggests that the mechanism for such transmission may have to do with the cultural son preference.
Adolescent girls' empowerment policy, health awareness, and decision-making: Evidence from the SABLA program in India.
Alishahi M, Hasanzadeh S
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Feb · PMID 39700669 · Publisher ↗
In India, adolescent girls are highly vulnerable, facing risks that hinder their healthy development into young women. India's Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (SABLA) aims to address these challen...
In India, adolescent girls are highly vulnerable, facing risks that hinder their healthy development into young women. India's Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (SABLA) aims to address these challenges by promoting health awareness and encouraging decision-making autonomy, fostering women's development. Using data from the nationally representative India Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS) and exploiting exogenous variations in the program's rollout across districts and birth cohorts, we provide evidence that exposure to SABLA increases the likelihood of young female participants using family planning and modern family planning methods. Furthermore, it indicates that participants are more likely to adopt a healthier diet, characterized by increased consumption of green leafy vegetables and reduced intake of fried foods. Additionally, the program empowers participants to have control over their financial resources. The findings also reveal a significant reduction in the likelihood of anemia among women who were exposed to the program. Notably, our results suggest that SABLA contributes to delaying women's marriage and their first childbirth. We find that women exposed to the program have fewer children than their counterparts and face fewer pregnancy losses. To account for COVID-19 disruptions, we include a COVID dummy variable. While the pandemic affected family planning, nutrition, and anemia, SABLA's positive impact on health and empowerment remains strong. Notably, it did not affect women's role in household decision-making, highlighting its lasting effect on empowerment.
Religiosity, attitudes toward science, and public health: Evidence from Finland.
Laliotis I, Mourelatos E, Lohtander J
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Feb · PMID 39700668 · Publisher ↗
We explore how religiosity influences perceptions and the adoption of protective health behaviours, as reflected in COVID-19 infection and vaccination rates. In the first part of our analysis, we use Finnish data from fo...
We explore how religiosity influences perceptions and the adoption of protective health behaviours, as reflected in COVID-19 infection and vaccination rates. In the first part of our analysis, we use Finnish data from four nationally representative surveys, we find that individuals with higher self-reported religiosity and those from more conservative religious groups tend to hold less favourable attitudes towards science, technology and medicine, compared to non-religious individuals. In the second part, we observe that municipalities with higher shares of conservative religious groups experienced greater COVID-19 spread and lower vaccination rates, with these trends persisting throughout the pandemic. Our findings underscore the importance of accounting for religiosity when crafting public health policies, as it may contribute to the existence of non-compliance hotspots.
Educational burden reduction, educational inequality, and enrollment pressure: Evidence from China.
Liu H, Zhang K, Wang L … +1 more , Chen J
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Feb · PMID 39674105 · Publisher ↗
With the introduction of a series of educational burden reduction policies in recent years, it has become a major concern for governments and society whether these policies can alleviate students' academic burden. This p...
With the introduction of a series of educational burden reduction policies in recent years, it has become a major concern for governments and society whether these policies can alleviate students' academic burden. This paper constructs an educational burden reduction policy index and evaluates the impact of the "30 Articles on Educational Burden Reduction (the AEBR)" implemented in 2018 on students' academic burden and physical and mental health. The results show that the AEBR significantly increases the daily sleep duration of primary and secondary school students, but has no significant effects on students' academic burden and mental health, indicating that the implementation of the AEBR is ineffective. Furthermore, we find that the AEBR widens the gap between household educational expenditure, indicating that the implementation of the AEBR increases educational inequality. Finally, we demonstrate that prolonged and widespread enrollment pressure has significantly undermined the effectiveness of the implementation of the AEBR.
Shattered ground, shaken minds: Mental health consequences of earthquakes.
Perdana ARA, Vall Castelló J
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Feb · PMID 39631116 · Publisher ↗
Despite growing recognition of the importance of mental health status for the achievement of the global development goals, substantial challenges persist in addressing this issue in both developed and developing countrie...
Despite growing recognition of the importance of mental health status for the achievement of the global development goals, substantial challenges persist in addressing this issue in both developed and developing countries. The literature has pointed to a variety of conditions as triggers for mental health problems, including exposure to unexpected natural disasters. Contributing to the literature, our study quantifies the mental health consequences of the devastating 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake in Indonesia. We combine the Modified Mercalli Intensity from the United States Geological Survey with individual-level data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey to assess the impacts on municipalities with varying earthquake intensities. Employing a difference-in-differences approach, we identify a significant and persistent deterioration in the mental health condition for individuals in municipalities with stronger earthquake severity. To explore the mechanisms underlying this impact, we analyze the roles of family casualties, physical health declines, and socio-economic disruptions, identifying family loss and worsened physical health as particularly influential factors driving the observed mental health outcomes.
Migrant well-being in Australia: Does locus of control matter?
Staneva A, Chai A
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Feb · PMID 39612617 · Publisher ↗
Using rich longitudinal data from Australia, we investigate the mental health impacts and behaviours of migration resettlement in Australia, focusing on age, gender and locus of control as possible modifiers. We find tha...
Using rich longitudinal data from Australia, we investigate the mental health impacts and behaviours of migration resettlement in Australia, focusing on age, gender and locus of control as possible modifiers. We find that age profiles in mental health differ significantly between migrant and native populations. Our analysis of second-generation migrants supports the 'healthy migrant paradox', suggesting favourable mental health outcomes. Additionally, we show that immigrants with an internal locus of control exhibit a lower likelihood of mental health issues, which suggests that an internal locus of control amplifies the beneficial effects in the case of mental health outcomes for immigrant populations.
Does early-life famine exposure lead to healthy later-life dietary behavior: Evidence from the great Chinese famine.
Wang Y, Shi T, Zang W
Econ Hum Biol · 2024 Dec · PMID 39566324 · Publisher ↗
This paper investigates the long-run effect of early-life exposure to famine on survivors' dietary behavior. By exploiting exogenous variations in local severity of the Great Chinese Famine and variations of different co...
This paper investigates the long-run effect of early-life exposure to famine on survivors' dietary behavior. By exploiting exogenous variations in local severity of the Great Chinese Famine and variations of different cohorts, we conduct a difference-in-differences analysis. Based on detailed three-day food intake records from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we find that famine exposure led the famine cohort who was conceived or born during the famine to adopt healthier dietary behaviors, as evidenced by a higher healthy eating score and a healthier dietary composition. Additionally, the pre-famine cohort exposed to the famine at ages 9-12 in late childhood exhibited a healthier food composition, characterized by a higher share of aquatic products. However, no statistically significant effects were observed for the pre-famine cohorts that experienced the famine in early and middle childhood. The results remain robust across various sensitivity checks. We propose that early-life famine exposure influences dietary behavior through mechanisms such as awareness of healthy eating, diet knowledge and risk aversion.
Employee well-being in the digital age: Assessing the impacts of a smartphone application in the workplace.
Aizawa T, Okudaira H, Kitagawa R … +2 more , Kuroda S, Owan H
Econ Hum Biol · 2024 Dec · PMID 39546941 · Publisher ↗
Recently, providing smartphone-based health-improving applications to employees has emerged as a promising strategy for sustaining their well-being. This study estimates the impact of the routine use of an application, i...
Recently, providing smartphone-based health-improving applications to employees has emerged as a promising strategy for sustaining their well-being. This study estimates the impact of the routine use of an application, introduced in 2020 by a Japanese manufacturing company, on various health-related behaviours and outcomes among employees by exploiting a distinctive large-scale longitudinal dataset and personnel records. The analysis addresses potential selection biases arising from the non-random nature of application usage by employing the instrumental variable approach. Regular application use generates significant positive impacts on health-related habits, including moderate alcohol consumption, regular breakfast intake and refraining from eating two hours before bedtime. Furthermore, regarding physical and psychological stress, noteworthy reductions in physical burden and less frequent experiences of annoyance are observed. Employees also report a lower frequency of dizziness, headaches and palpitations, albeit an increase in the frequency of strained eyes is noted. Additionally, application use is associated with lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure, as well as decreased levels of triglycerides and gamma-GTP.
Teen parent trap? The education and labor implications of motherhood and fatherhood during the transition from adolescence to adulthood in Cebu, the Philippines.
Sen Chakraborty K, Villa KM
Econ Hum Biol · 2024 Dec · PMID 39536509 · Publisher ↗
For both males and females, adolescent parenthood can affect human capital investments and labor market choices during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. However, only scant evidence exists on the educational...
For both males and females, adolescent parenthood can affect human capital investments and labor market choices during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. However, only scant evidence exists on the educational and labor implications of adolescent motherhood in developing countries and there is none on adolescent fatherhood. Using fixed effects, linear, and hazard models on a matched sample, we examine the association between early parenthood and education and labor market outcomes for a cohort of adolescents using longitudinal data from Cebu, the Philippines. While we find that early parenthood is associated with poorer educational outcomes for both teen mothers and fathers, the association is stronger for mothers. Upon becoming parents, labor market participation reduces for teen mothers but increases for teen fathers. Teen parents (both mothers and fathers) face a higher hazard of leaving school early, but teen fathers exhibit a substantially higher hazard of entering the labor market earlier. In young adulthood, conditional on working, both teen mothers and fathers are more likely to be informally employed. This paper highlights the potential gains from delaying first childbirth for adolescent males and females.
Discrimination backfires? Minority ethnic disparities in vaccine hesitancy.
Costa-Font J, Docrat F
Econ Hum Biol · 2024 Dec · PMID 39520967 · Publisher ↗
A number of minority ethnic groups (MEGs) exhibited persistent reluctance to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This paper attempts to empirically identify and validate some of the contentious behavioral determinants for vacc...
A number of minority ethnic groups (MEGs) exhibited persistent reluctance to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This paper attempts to empirically identify and validate some of the contentious behavioral determinants for vaccine hesitancy (VH) that remain unexplained including the role of risk perceptions, trust in government institutions, and prior experiences of racism and trauma. We draw on unique longitudinal data from a minority-boosted sample that was collected in the United Kingdon (UK). We document robust evidence of MEG disparities in VH, which declined between November 2020 and March 2021. While VH is associated to both historical and current distrust in government, risk beliefs, exposure to racism, and an individuals socio-economic background, these factors do not fully explain MEG disparities. Furthermore, similar patterns of inequality are observed when we examine MEG disparities in healthcare use, suggesting that disparities in VH reflect broader unobservable structural barriers to healthcare access.
Fiscal externalities and underinvestment in early-life human capital: Optimal policy instruments for a developing country.
Lawson N, Spears D
Econ Hum Biol · 2024 Dec · PMID 39504660 · Publisher ↗
We study policy instruments to correct inefficiently low investment in maternal nutrition in India, where one-fifth of all births occur. We focus on fiscal externalities: healthier babies become more productive adults, w...
We study policy instruments to correct inefficiently low investment in maternal nutrition in India, where one-fifth of all births occur. We focus on fiscal externalities: healthier babies become more productive adults, who pay more tax. However, parents do not internalize this externality, which, combined with other distortions, results in mothers weighing too little during pregnancy. We calibrate the first sufficient-statistics policy model for the quantitatively important case of fiscal externalities and maternal nutrition in developing countries. The optimal subsidy is large. Yet, welfare gains are even greater from public investment in state capacity to monitor nutrition, enabling targetted incentives.
The physical well-being of Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest: Anthropometric evidence from British Columbia's jails, 1864-1913.
Inwood K, Keay I
Econ Hum Biol · 2024 Dec · PMID 39488028 · Publisher ↗
This paper documents the height of Indigenous men from the Pacific Northwest who were incarcerated in British Columbia's jails during a period of colonization and increasing market access. The average height of adults fr...
This paper documents the height of Indigenous men from the Pacific Northwest who were incarcerated in British Columbia's jails during a period of colonization and increasing market access. The average height of adults from a given community reflects the standard of living in that community at the time the adults were growing to maturity. After correcting for the impact of sample selection arising from prisoners' personal attributes, their home communities' access to market opportunities, and unobserved height determinants associated with exposure to the colonial criminal justice system, we find that Indigenous men were positively selected into incarceration based on their height. Moreover, the tendency for the tallest men to be incarcerated became stronger over our period of study. Our results suggest that Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest were at a severe bioeconomic disadvantage during the nineteenth century, and their well-being did not improve as market access and colonial institutions spread through the region.
Stress in the air: A conjecture.
Stark O
Econ Hum Biol · 2024 Dec · PMID 39471542 · Publisher ↗
The 1949 study The American Soldier: Combat and Its Aftermath, Volume II, by Stouffer et al. presents detailed accounts of the attitudes of American fighter pilots toward the stress experienced by them and of the policie...
The 1949 study The American Soldier: Combat and Its Aftermath, Volume II, by Stouffer et al. presents detailed accounts of the attitudes of American fighter pilots toward the stress experienced by them and of the policies and practices of the American Air Force command in addressing this stress during WWII. The 2022 study "Killer incentives" by Ager et al. documents an aspect and a repercussion of the stress of German fighter pilots and can be used to identify the response to that stress by the German Air Force command during WWII. Drawing on these two studies, in this paper I construct fighter pilot stress profiles in the two air forces. The picture that emerges is that there is a stark difference between the approaches of the two commands. This diversity leads me to conjecture that the American Air Force command explicitly sought to forestall and curtail fighter pilots' stress, whereas the German Air Force command implicitly cultivated and engineered fighter pilots' stress.
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