ABSTRACT: This paper is the first to evaluate whether an adverse shock experienced by a grandmother while pregnant has a negative effect on her grandchildren in the context of India. Using district-by-month-by-year rainfall information matched with the India Household Development Survey, I find that negative rainfall shocks during the grandmother’s pregnancy have negative effects on her grandchildren’s height-for-age and cognitive ability z-scores. I also explore the mechanisms that can potentially explain these multigenerational effects and find that the adverse effects of rainfall shocks on grandchildren do not decrease once controlled for the mother’s education, consumption expenditure and body mass index. These results seem to suggest that the main mechanism of transmission of negative in-utero shocks from grandmothers to grandchildren is through the biological channel – plausibly genetic or epigenetic inheritance. This implies that interventions to remedy for the damage that is already done in-utero might be less effective.

ABSTRACT: In this paper, I use instrumental variable approach to investigate gender-differential response of parents’ education expenditure to changes in child’s health due to negative rainfall shocks in early childhood. I use the first two rounds of the rural sample of Young Lives survey for Andhra Pradesh, India and district-level monthly rainfall data predating the start of Young Lives sampling process. I find that parents in rural areas, on average, compensate for changes in child’s health by increasing their education expenditures. I also find a gender-differential investment behavior; even though parents show a compensatory strategy for both boys and girls, they seem to invest more in education of a boy as compared to a girl child. This suggests that when hit by a shock, parents protect their son’s health more than they protect their daughter’s.

ABSTRACT: I estimate the intergenerational impact of women’s exposure to the legislative amendments in inheritance law on their children’s health. In 2005, there was a national constitutional amendment to the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 in India, which gave females an equal right as males to inherit their parents’ ancestral property. However, five states had amended the same Act earlier than the national amendment. I use this exogenous, state-level variation and employ a difference-in- difference estimation strategy. Using the India Human Development Survey, I find a significant improvement in health of children whose mothers were exposed to the amendment, but that even after the reform, substantial gender bias persists. The height-for-age z-score of daughters is significantly lower than that of sons. This pattern of discrimination is only seen for those children whose mothers have less than primary level of education and worsens with the number of children she has. I further explore the mechanisms through which the reform operates and I find that the improvement in child health can be explained by mothers’ improved bargaining power in household decisions regarding perinatal health care utilisation and her freedom of movement.