Publication Date
12-1-2025
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Economics and Human Biology
Volume
59
DOI
10.1016/j.ehb.2025.101523
Abstract
A growing literature has documented broad negative impacts of Chinese imports to advanced economies, mainly due to the competition of these imports with local production. However, for countries with a smaller manufacturing sector and which have not experienced a structural transformation away from agriculture, Chinese imports could have positive effects. We find evidence supporting this claim using a sample of over 350,000 births from 25 countries in Sub-Sahara Africa. Our identification compares the birthweight of biological siblings born at different levels of Chinese imports to their country. We find that an increase in Chinese imports of $100 (constant USD) is associated with an increase in birthweight by almost 14 g. Gains are larger for female children, children born to lesser-educated mothers and from imports of health- and food-related goods.
Keywords
Birthweight, Chinese imports, Infant health, Sub-Saharan Africa, Trade
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Department
Economics
Recommended Citation
Jorge M. Aguero and Patralekha Ukil. "The (Birthweight) Gains From Trade: Chinese Imports and Infant Health in Sub-Saharan Africa" Economics and Human Biology (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2025.101523
