Birth Weight Effects
The causal relationship between birth weight and child outcomes from birth through the teenage years
How Neonatal Health Shapes Human Capital: Evidence on Developmental Pathways
Abstract
Research consistently shows a strong association between birth weight and a wide range of adult outcomes, but little is known about the developmental pathways from birth through adolescence. This paper examines the relationship between birth weight and longitudinal measures of health and development throughout childhood. We link perinatal care data on the universe of 3.1 million children born in the Netherlands (2000–2020) to novel Preventive Youth Health Care data, providing detailed measures of early-life physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development. We exploit within-family variation in birth weight using sibling and twin fixed effects models. We replicate earlier findings showing that birth weight is significantly associated with early infant health indicators, positively with APGAR score, and negatively with perinatal and neonatal mortality. In terms of developmental pathways, we find lasting effects on physical health (being underweight and overweight), as well as academic performance from ages 11 to 21. In contrast, no to weakly significant associations were found for speech and language development at ages 2 and 3, and socio-emotional development (SDQ score) throughout childhood. Lastly, we find that higher birth weight is associated with lower annual hospital costs, while we find mixed evidence of an association with mental health care use. Overall, the findings highlight the lasting consequences of neonatal health conditions and point to specific pathways through which in utero conditions affect human capital outcomes.
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