Parijat Maitra

Parijat Maitra

PhD student in Economics

Research

Working Papers

Born Too Soon? Policy-Induced Birth Timing and Child Development

Authors: Parijat Maitra, Libertad González
Status: BSE Working Paper 1539 (December 2025).

Abstract

We examine the impact of policy-induced changes in birth timing on children’s health and educational outcomes. 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 shorter gestation periods and lower birth-weight (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 school performance at age seven, suggesting large persistent effects on cognitive development.

Conferences and Workshops

Presented

  • 2026: 5th Stockholm Workshop on Diversity and Workplace Inclusion, Stockholm; Workshop IdEP in Sustainable Economics (WISE), Airolo
  • 2025: Simposio de la Asociación Española de Economía (SAEe), Barcelona; Association of Swedish Development Economists: Conference on Development Economics (ASWEDE), Gothenburg; Stockholm-Uppsala Doctoral Student Workshop in Economics (SUDSWEC), Stockholm; 2nd HEFUU Workshop in Causal Health Economics, Uppsala
  • 2024: Stockholm-Uppsala Doctoral Student Workshop in Economics (SUDSWEC), Stockholm
  • 2023: Catalan Economic Society Conference (CESC), Barcelona; European Society for Population Economics (ESPE), Belgrade
  • 2022: Simposio de la Asociación Española de Economía (SAEe), Valencia

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.