Policy Matters: The long shadow of early life health

In this episode of Policy Matters, hosts Matt Dickson and Franz Buscha are joined by Sonia Bhalotra, Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick. Sonia has a prodigious volume of highly policy-relevant research on topics relating to the creation of human capital, early child development, gender inequality, intergenerational mobility, and the impact of early life health on later life outcomes. Franz and Matt begin by asking Sonia about her research on the impact of the advent of antibiotics in the US in the 1930s on child pneumonia, and how this had long-lasting impacts on children’s education and labour market outcomes. Sonia goes on to explain how improvements in child health and mortality have implications not just for the children themselves but also for women’s fertility decisions and labour supply, with important policy lessons for lower income countries where fertility, child mortality and female labour supply today look very similar to how the US looked back in the middle of the last century. The discussion then turns to the trade-off between the ‘quality’ and the quantity of children that a family have and again how this inter-relates to female labour supply, including the surprising news that having twins is not as random as we might have assumed. The programme ends by touching upon Sonia’s research on the long-term benefits of treating maternal depression, highlighting how a non-drug therapy can have profound and long-lasting impact on maternal health and wellbeing.