Health Shocks and the Intergenerational Transmission of Inequality: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

This paper explores the intergenerational effects of parental health shocks using longitudinal data from the Young Lives project conducted in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is found that health shocks to poorer parents reduce investments in children thereby reducing their future earnings, and perpetuating poverty and inequality. The paper discusses important dimensions like the timing of health shocks and pathways through which they affect human capital investment, differential effects of paternal and maternal shocks on different cohort groups, roles of cognitive abilities of children and quality of schooling in human capital accumulation.

Citation

Dhanaraj, S. Health Shocks and the Intergenerational Transmission of Inequality: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh, India. UNU-WIDER, Helsinki, Finland (2015) 18 pp. [WIDER Working Paper No. 2015/004]

Health Shocks and the Intergenerational Transmission of Inequality: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh, India

Updates to this page

Published 1 January 2015