Child Care and Human Development

Insights from Jewish History in Central and Eastern Europe, 1500–1930

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9708476
AutoresMaristella Botticini (Bocconi University), Zvi Eckstein (The Interdisciplinary Center IDC Herzliya and Tel Aviv University. Research Fellow of CEPR and IZA), Anat Vaturi (0000-0002-9580-2473, University of Haifa)
Año2019
Volumen129
Número623
Páginas2637-2690
Fecha de publicación2019-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Economic Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0013-0133 • E-ISSN: 1468-0297
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ej/uez025
OpenAlexW2905749613
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas89

Economists increasingly highlight the role that human capital formation, institutions and cultural transmission may play in shaping health, knowledge and wealth. We study one of the most remarkable instances in which religious norms and childcare practices had a major impact: the history of the Jews in central and eastern Europe from 1500 to 1930. We show that while birth rates were about the same, infant and child mortality among Jews was much lower and accounted for the main difference in Jewish versus non-Jewish natural population growth. Jewish families routinely adopted childcare practices that recent medical research has shown as enhancing children's well-being

Biology · Cultural transmission in animals · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnology · Human capital · Judaism · Medical care · Natural history · Political science · Population · Sociology · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Demography · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Medicine · Nursing