Intergenerational persistence of health: Do immigrants get healthier as they remain in the U.S. for more generations?
利用NLSY数据，研究了美国本土和移民家庭中健康（如体重、身高、BMI、哮喘和抑郁）的代际传递，发现50%-70%的母亲健康状况会传递给子女，且移民的BMI持续性高于本土居民，但随着移民在美国居住时间延长，代际持续性降低，子女BMI逐渐接近本土居民。
It is well known that a substantial part of income and education is passed on from parents to children, generating substantial persistence in socioeconomic status across generations. In this paper, we examine whether another form of human capital, health, is also largely transmitted from generation to generation. Using data from the NLSY, we first present new evidence on intergenerational transmission of health outcomes in the U.S., including weight, height, the body mass index (BMI), asthma and depression for both natives and immigrants. We show that between 50% and 70% of the mothers' health status persists in both native and immigrant children, and that, on average, immigrants experience higher persistence than natives in BMI. We also find that the longer immigrants remain in the U.S., the less intergenerational persistence there is and the more immigrants look like native children. Unfortunately, the more generations immigrant families remain in the U.S., the more children of immigrants resemble natives' higher BMI.