TY  - JOUR
AU  - Meng,Xin
AU  - Qian,Nancy
TI  - The Long Term Consequences of Famine on Survivors: Evidence from a Unique Natural Experiment using China's Great Famine
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14917
PY  - 2009
Y2  - April 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14917
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14917.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Xin Meng
Australian National University
E-Mail: xin.meng@anu.edu.au

Nancy Qian
Department of Economics
Yale University
27 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 06520-8269
E-Mail: nancy.qian@yale.edu
AB  - This paper estimates the long run impact of famine on survivors in the context of China’s Great Famine. To address problems of measurement error of famine exposure and potential endogeneity of famine intensity, we exploit a novel source of variation in regional intensity of famine derived from the unique institutional determinants of the Great Famine. To address attenuation bias caused by selection for survival, we estimate the impact on the upper quantiles of the distribution of outcomes. Our results indicate that in-utero and early childhood exposure to famine had large negative effects on adult height, weight, weight-for-height, educational attainment and labor supply.
ER  -