Parijat Maitra

Parijat Maitra

PhD student in Economics

Research

Work in progress

Born Too Soon? The Educational Costs of Early Elective Deliveries

Authors: Parijat Maitra, Libertad González
Status: Working Paper

Abstract

We examine the impact of early elective birth timing on children’s health and educational outcomes, focusing on cognitive development as measured by elementary school grades. We exploit a natural experiment in Spain: the abrupt termination of a generous child benefit at the end of 2010, which led to a sharp increase in elective deliveries during the final week of December. Children born during this spike had slightly shorter gestation periods and lower birth weights (within the normal range), and experienced a higher incidence of respiratory disorders during infancy. We find that the affected cohort of children had significantly lower academic performance at age seven (in second grade), suggesting large persistent effects on cognitive development. Our results provide causal evidence on the medium-term costs of early elective deliveries, and underscore the link between neonatal health and human capital.

Conferences

Presented

  • Simposio de la Asociación Española de Economía (SAEe 2022, Valencia)
  • Catalan Economic Society Conference (CESC 2023, Barcelona)
  • European Society for Population Economics (ESPE 2023, Belgrade)
  • Stockholm-Uppsala Doctoral Student Workshop in Economics (SUDSWEC 2024, Stockholm)
  • 2nd HEFUU Workshop in Causal Health Economics 2025 (Uppsala)
  • Stockholm-Uppsala Doctoral Student Workshop in Economics (SUDSWEC 2025, Stockholm)
  • Association of Swedish Development Economists: Conference on Development Economics (ASWEDE 2025, Gothenburg)
  • Simposio de la Asociación Española de Economía (SAEe 2025, Barcelona)

Upcoming

Publications prior to graduate school

  • Parijat Maitra (2022). Inventories and Business Cycles: The Story of the Last Three Decades.
    Economics Bulletin, 42(2): 553-565.