TY  - JOUR
AU  - Aizer,Anna
AU  - Stroud,Laura
AU  - Buka,Stephen
TI  - Maternal Stress and Child Outcomes: Evidence from Siblings
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18422
PY  - 2012
Y2  - September 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18422
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18422.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Anna Aizer
Brown University
Department of Economics
64 Waterman Street
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401/863-9529
Fax: 401/863-1970
E-Mail: anna_aizer@brown.edu

Laura Stroud
Centers for Behavioral and
  Preventive Medicine
Brown Medical School and 
  The Miriam Hospital
Coro West, Suite 500, 1 Hoppin Street 
Providence RI 02903
E-Mail: lstroudri@gmail.com

Stephen Buka
Brown University - Dept of Epidemiology
Box G-S121-2 121
Providence, RI 02912
E-Mail: stephen_buka@brown.edu
AB  - We study how maternal stress affects offspring outcomes. We find that in-utero exposure to elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol negatively affects offspring cognition, health and educational attainment. These findings are based on comparisons between siblings which limits variation to short-lived shocks and controls for unobserved differences between mothers that could bias estimates. Our results are consistent with recent experimental results in the neurobiological literature linking exogenous exposure to stress hormones in-utero with declines in offspring cognitive, behavioral and motor development. Moreover, we find that not only are mothers with low levels of human capital characterized by higher and more variable cortisol levels, but that the negative impact of elevated cortisol is greater for them. These results suggest that prenatal stress may play a role in the intergenerational persistence of poverty.
ER  -