Early life exposure to malaria and cognition in adulthood: Evidence from Mexico

This study examines the impact of early life malaria exposure on cognition in sample of Mexican adults, using the nationwide introduction of malaria eradication efforts to identify causal impacts. The core findings are that birth year exposure to malaria eradication was associated with increases in...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of health economics 2012-09, Vol.31 (5), p.767-780
Main Author: Venkataramani, Atheendar S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adulthood
Adults
Causal analysis
Child
Child health
Cognition
Cognition & reasoning
Cohort Studies
Disease prevention
Early childhood
Earnings
Education
Educational Status
Eradication
Female
Flynn Effect
Health administration
Human capital
Humans
Impact analysis
Income - statistics & numerical data
Infant
Malaria
Malaria - epidemiology
Malaria - prevention & control
Male
Mexico
Mexico - epidemiology
Parental investments
Sex Distribution
Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This study examines the impact of early life malaria exposure on cognition in sample of Mexican adults, using the nationwide introduction of malaria eradication efforts to identify causal impacts. The core findings are that birth year exposure to malaria eradication was associated with increases in Raven Progressive Matrices test scores and consumption expenditures, but not schooling. Additionally, cohorts born after eradication both entered and exited school earlier than their pre-eradication counterparts. These effects were only seen for men and explanations for this are assessed. Collectively, these findings suggest that improvements in infant health help explain secular increases in cognitive test scores, that better cognition may link early life health to adulthood earnings, and that human capital investments through childhood and young adulthood respond sensitively to market returns to early life endowment shocks.
ISSN:0167-6296
1879-1646
DOI:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2012.06.003