摘要：The prevalence of low birth weight is an important aspect of public health which hasbeen linked to increased risk of infant death, increased cost of care, and a range of later lifeoutcomes. Using data from a new Irish cohort study, I document the relationship between birthweight and socio-economic status. The association of maternal education with birth weight doesnot appear to be due to the timing of birth or complications during pregnancy, even controlling fora wide range of background characteristics. However, results do suggest intergenerationalpersistence in the transmission of poor early life conditions. Birth weight predicts a number ofoutcomes at age 9, including test scores, hospital stays and health. An advantage of the data isthat I am able to control for a number of typically unmeasured variables. I determine whetherparental investments (as measured by the quality of interaction with the child, parenting style,or school quality) mediate the association between birth weight and later indicators. For testscores, there is evidence of non-linearity, and boys are more adversely affected than girls. I alsoconsider whether there are heterogeneous effects by ability using quantile regression. Theseresults are consistent with a literature which finds that there is a causal relationship betweenearly life conditions and later outcomes
