Journal of Political Economy Vol. 127 No. 4 2019
Early Life Circumstance and Adult Mental Health
open access
Abstract
We show that psychological well-being in adulthood varies with circumstance in early life. Combining a time series of real producer prices of cocoa with a nationally representative household survey in Ghana, we find that a one standard deviation rise in the cocoa price in early life decreases the likelihood of severe mental distress in adulthood by 3 percentage points (half the mean prevalence) for cohorts born in cocoa-producing regions relative to those born in other regions. Impacts on related personality traits are consistent with this result. Maternal nutrition, reinforcing childhood investments, and adult circumstance are likely operative channels of impact.
- DOI
- 10.1086/701606
- Volume
- 127
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1516-1549
- Language
- en
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref