Destined to be Divergent: Birth Weight and Intragenerational Income Mobility

• In Event: 1246 - The Long Arm of Childhood: Early life exposures and later life consequences

Abstract

Focusing on how early-life health affects socioeconomic status attainment, this paper investigates the correlation between birth weight and income over the life course, using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and growth curve models. Results show that there is a salient gender difference in the effects of birth weight on income and income mobility. For males, low birth weight leads to a disadvantage in income at early career stages, but these negative effects are not cumulative over time, not independent to the effects of demographic and social backgrounds, and sensitive to model specification and variable operationalization. For females, low birth weight confers an advantage in income mobility especially when family processes are taken into account. The analysis demonstrates the long-lasting impact of early-life advantages or disadvantages, highlights the significance of cultural gender beliefs, and calls for research taking status attainment as a process instead of an outcome only.

Author

• Han Liu, State University of New York at Albany