Mevlude Akbulut-Yuksel
Department of Economics
Dalhousie University
PO Box 15000
6214 University Avenue
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3H 4R2 CANADA
E-Mail: 
Institutional Affiliations: Dalhousie University and IZA
Information about this author at RePEc
NBER Working Papers and Publications
February 2016 | Intergenerational Persistence of Health in the U.S.: Do Immigrants Get Healthier as they Assimilate?
with Adriana D. Kugler: w21987
It is well known that a substantial part of income and education is passed on from parents to children, generating substantial persistence in socio-economic status across generations. In this paper, we examine whether another form of human capital, health, is also largely transmitted from generation to generation, contributing to limited socio-economic mobility. Using data from the NLSY, we first present new evidence on intergenerational transmission of health outcomes in the U.S., including weight, height, the body mass index (BMI), asthma and depression for both natives and immigrants. We show that both native and immigrant children inherit a prominent fraction of their health status from their parents, and that, on average, immigrants experience higher persistence than natives in weight... |
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