Tradition and mortality: Evidence from twin infanticide in Africa
研究历史上存在双胞胎杀婴传统的非洲社会，是否在今天仍导致双胞胎死亡率更高，发现总体无显著差异，但在传统压制较弱的地区仍有影响。
Traditions can limit investment in early life health, even if they have been abandoned. We introduce data on historic twin infanticide and merge it with recent birth records from 23 African countries. We use the full sample and a border sample of adjacent societies with and without past twin infanticide. Both samples provide no evidence that past twin infanticide predicts greater differential twin mortality today. This null result is likely a consequence of suppression efforts by Africans, missionaries, and colonial governments. Where these channels were weak, we find evidence of greater twin mortality today.