DOI: 10.1162/rest.a.1873 ISSN: 0034-6535
Parental Response to Fetal Shocks and Macroeconomic Volatility
Rakesh Banerjee, Farhan MajidAbstract
We examine parental response to a fetal shock using data from 150 Demographic and Health Surveys in 50 developing countries. Focusing on the impact of Ramadan fasting, a common shock experienced by more than a billion Muslims worldwide, we find that children exposed to Ramadan fasting during pregnancy have lower rates of full vaccination for DPT and polio compared to their non-exposed siblings. Further, parents tend to compensate for the fetal shock during booms and reinforce during economic downturns. Our estimations suggest that this has resulted in approximately half a million excess infant deaths over the past three decades.