An increasing amount of research in the last few years has examined how inherited traits such as height can influence a person's economic success as an adult, but it seems that an infant's experiences in the womb most strongly influence how well a child will fare in adulthood. Published in the Journal of Political Economy, the researchers behind the new study believe it has important implications for public policy. They suggest that programs targeting early-life health would be much better at reducing racial socioeconomic disparities than more traditional investments, like schooling.
"The key distinction for policy purposes is that whereas heredity is immutable, congenital characteristics are mediated by the prenatal environment. This strongly suggests that economic outcomes are malleable in a way not widely recognized, and therefore subject to improvement," explained Columbia University researcher, Douglas Almond.
To arrive at his findings, Almond utilized census data to analyze the adult economic outcomes of those exposed in utero to the 1918 influenza pandemic. In the U.S., 25 million people contracted influenza and survived. The pandemic struck without warning and lasted only a few months, meaning that those born a few months apart had markedly different in utero conditions. "The 1918 influenza pandemic provides an exceptional opportunity to evaluate effects of prenatal environment using U.S. census data," said Almond. "Some of the highest infection rates were observed among women of childbearing age, one-third of whom contracted influenza."
Almond found that the children of infected mothers were 15 percent less likely to graduate from high school, and sons of infected mothers earned around $2,500 less per year than those who did not suffer influenza exposure in the womb. Additionally, those who were in utero at the height of the epidemic had 20 percent higher disability rates at the age of 61.
"This broad range of socioeconomic impacts is found among men, women, whites, and non-whites alike," writes Almond. "This finding, when combined with previous positive findings on the long-term health effects of the prenatal period, helps explain the gradient between adult health and economic outcomes. The findings indicate that racial disparities in adult health and economic status could be reduced by targeting [the] early-life health of black infants."
Source: Journal of Political Economy
