The long term consequences of famine on survivors: Evidence from a unique natural experiment using China’s great famine.

This paper estimates the long run impact of famine on survivors in the context of China’s Great Famine.
To address problems of measurement error of famine exposure and potential endogeneity of famine
intensity, we exploit a novel source of variation in regional intensity of famine derived from the unique
institutional determinants of the Great Famine. To address attenuation bias caused by selection for
survival, we estimate the impact on the upper quantiles of the distribution of outcomes. Our results
indicate that in-utero and early childhood exposure to famine had large negative effects on adult height,
weight, weight-for-height, educational attainment and labor supply.