People who happen to be born in good economic times live longer than those who aren’t and the apparent payoff from an economically fortuitous birthday lasts a lifetime, according to a team of European researchers.
"The results indicate a strong effect of … economic conditions during childhood on mortality at all ages," reported a team of researchers, headed by economics professor Maarten Lindeboom of the Free University of Amsterdam, in a paper published recently by the Institute for the Study of Labor at the University of Bonn. "Those who are born in bad times on average have a high mortality rate throughout life, in particular during childhood itself and at ages above 50. Current macroeconomic conditions mostly have an effect on youths and on the elderly."
The data come from a unique source: a random sample of 3,000 individuals born in the province of Utrecht in the Netherlands between 1812 and 1912. Researchers collected information on these individuals from birth until their deaths, allowing a clear view of how economic conditions affected mortality.
On average, they found that a 10 percent improvement in gross national product added nearly three years to the life of the average respondent. Moreover, most of the benefits due to economic conditions accrued from conditions during the first years of life, making it "particularly useful (from a policy standpoint) to focus on children aged between 1 and 7 in bad economic conditions," Lindeboom’s team reported.
These researchers can say with reasonable confidence what is likely to happen when people are born during economic booms and busts. But they don’t know why it happens. Perhaps people have more money to spend on health care for their infants during good times and the effects of these expenditures influence health over a lifetime, they suggest.
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