The  Center for Economics & Public Policy presents

“The Effects of Poor Neonatal Health on Cognitive Development”
with David Figlio, Director, Institute for Policy Research, Orrington Lunt Professor of Education and Social Policy and of Economics, Northwestern University

Tuesday, February 12, 2013
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Social Science Plaza B, Room 4250

Several recent studies show that poor neonatal health (proxied by low birth weight) has persistent effects into adulthood by reducing both an individual's level of educational attainment as well as adult earnings, but little is known about effects before age 18. This talk makes use of a large new population of twins from Florida to study this question. Figlio finds that the effects of poor neonatal health on student outcomes are remarkably invariant. The estimates are virtually identical from third grade through tenth grade. They are the same regardless of whether a student attended a "better" school versus a "worse" school, across racial and ethnic groups, and across maternal education levels. However, the effects grow in magnitude between the start of kindergarten and the end of third grade. These results suggest an important potential role for early childhood and early elementary investments in remediating this persistent condition.

This talk is part of the Population, Society and Inequality Winter 2013 Colloquium Series and is jointly sponsored by the Center for Demographic and Social Analysis.

For further information, please contact Sandy Cushman, scushman@uci.edu or 949-824-3344.