This week's Applied Seminar will feature Rita Ginja of University of Bergen.

Rita will be discussing her paper: Pregnancy loss: Stress, investment and subsequent children.

Abstract:

Pregnancy loss, which affects about 1 in 4 pregnancies, is often a traumatic, although unacknowledged, event which may alter prenatal stress and investments in subsequent pregnancies. Using Norwegian registry data, we exploit the random nature of single, early miscarriages to examine the impact of previous pregnancy loss on maternal investment, the birth and educational outcomes of subsequent children, and parental labor market outcomes. Pregnancy loss initially improves subsequent maternal investment and child outcomes, but effects dissipate over time. These findings suggest that long term supports may be required to mitigate negative effects arising from prenatal shocks such as pregnancy loss.