Arbeitspapier

Save some, lose some: Biological consequences of an unexpected wage cut

Recent literature exploring fetal shocks has focused on the effects of exogenous, but rather rare and violent events (e.g., military conflicts, natural disasters, terrorist attacks) and found that in utero experience has scaring, life lasting consequences. In this paper we consider the effect of an arguably more common and milder shock generated by a major and unexpected, albeit temporary, wage cut policy that affected all public sector employees in Romania in 2010. Our main findings suggest an overall improvement in the health at birth (as measured by the low birth weight indicator) of the cohorts exposed to the shock. Moreover, we find significant improvements in health at birth exclusively for boys and not for girls. This effect seems to be driven by significant effects of males exposed to the shock early in gestation. Additionally, we also find a decreased male to female ratio at birth for the cohort exposed to the shock. Overall, our results are consistent with the so-called culling theory hypothesizing that maternal exposure to significant stress early in gestation selects against male frail fetuses and, as a result of this selection in utero, at birth, one should observe significant improvements in health outcomes in the male cohorts.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: Working Paper ; No. 2012:4

Classification
Wirtschaft
Health: Other
Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs: Public Policy
Cultural Economics: Public Policy
Subject
wage cut
transitory income shock
neonatal health
selection in utero
Romania
Lohn
Schock
Mütter
Fertilität
Kinder
Gesundheit
Rumänien

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Bejenariu, Simona
Mitrut, Andreea
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Uppsala University, Department of Economics
(where)
Uppsala
(when)
2012

Handle
URN
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-168335
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Bejenariu, Simona
  • Mitrut, Andreea
  • Uppsala University, Department of Economics

Time of origin

  • 2012

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