Germs in the Family: The Short- and Long-Term Consequences of Intrahousehold Disease Spread

N. Meltem Daysal; Hui Ding; Maya Rossin-Slater; Hannes Schwandt

doi:10.1257/aer.20231521

Germs in the Family: The Short- and Long-Term Consequences of Intrahousehold Disease Spread

N. Meltem Daysal¹; Hui Ding²; Maya Rossin-Slater³; Hannes Schwandt⁴

¹ Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, CEBI, CESifo, IZA (email: ) · ² School of Economics, Fudan University; Shanghai Institute of International Finance and Economics (email: ) · ³ Department of Health Policy, Stanford University School of Medicine, NBER, IZA (email: ) · ⁴ School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, NBER, CEPR, IZA (email: )

American Economic Review 2026 open access

Preschool-aged children get sick frequently and spread disease to other family members. Despite the universality of this experience, there is limited causal evidence on the magnitudes and consequences of these externalities, especially for infant siblings with developing immune systems and brains. We show in Danish administrative data that during infancy, younger siblings have two to three times higher hospitalization rates for respiratory conditions than older siblings. We combine birth order and within-municipality variation in respiratory disease prevalence among young children, finding lasting differential impacts of early-life respiratory disease exposure on younger siblings' earnings, educational attainment, chronic respiratory health, and mental health-related outcomes. (JEL D13, D62, I12, J12, J13, J24, J31)

DOI: 10.1257/aer.20231521
Volume: 116 (7)
Pages: 2643-2684
Language: en
Export: BibTeX
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