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We study the gender-specific impact of macroeconomic conditions around birth on infant health. We use a sample of over 50,000 respondents born between 1950 and 1994 from Lifelines-a cohort and biobank from the northern Netherlands. Our results show that high provincial unemployment rates decrease fertility and lead to a lower birthweight in boys. The negative impact of high unemployment on birthweight is particularly strong for boys born to older mothers and for babies born to smoking mothers.

Much of the literature that studies long-run effects of early-life economic conditions on health outcomes is based on pre-1940 birth cohorts. Early in these individuals' lives, public social safety nets were at best rudimentary, and female labor force participation was relatively low. We complement the evidence by studying the effects of regional business cycle variations in the post-1950 Netherlands on cardiovascular disease risk in adulthood. We use data from Lifelines, a large cohort study that covers socioeconomic , biological and health information from over 75,000 individuals aged between 20 and 63. Cardiovascular risk index is constructed from an extensive set of biomarkers. The results show that for women a 1 p.p. increase in the provincial unemployment level leads to a 0.02 p.p. increase in the risk of a fatal cardiovascular event in the coming 10 years while the effect in men is not significant. We conclude that women born in adverse economic conditions experience higher cardiovascular risk.

This paper investigates whether the voluntary deductible in the Dutch health insurance system reduces moral hazard or acts only as a cost reduction tool for low‐risk individuals. We use a sample of 14,089 observations, comprising 2,939 individuals over seven waves from the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social sciences panel for the analysis. We employ bivariate models that jointly model the choice of a deductible and health care utilization and supplement the identification with an instrumental variable strategy. The results show that the voluntary deductible reduces moral hazard, especially in the decision to visit a doctor (extensive margin) compared with the number of visits (intensive margin). In addition, a robustness test shows that selection on moral hazard is not present in this context.

This chapter provides a narrative review of the literature relating socioeconomic circumstances early in life to mental health and well-being later in life. It starts by highlighting the various contributions focusing on associations, then moves on to the literature attempting to identify causal effects before discussing the potential mechanisms at play. The chapter closes with a view toward research questions that may inform a future research agenda and highlights some anchors for policy.