Maternal Stress and Child Outcomes: Evidence from Siblings
利用兄弟姐妹间的比较，研究发现母亲孕期暴露于高水平压力激素皮质醇会损害子女的认知、健康和教育成就，且对低人力资本母亲的子女影响更大，可能加剧贫困的代际传递。
We study how maternal stress affects offspring outcomes. We find that in-utero exposure to elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol negatively affects offspring cognition, health and educational attainment. These findings are based on comparisons between siblings which limits variation to short-lived shocks and controls for unobserved differences between mothers that could bias estimates. Our results are consistent with recent experimental results in the neurobiological literature linking exogenous exposure to stress hormones in-utero with declines in offspring cognitive, behavioral and motor development. Moreover, we find that not only are mothers with low levels of human capital characterized by higher and more variable cortisol levels, but that the negative impact of elevated cortisol on their offspring is greater. These results suggest that maternal stress may play a role in the intergenerational persistence of poverty.