This Wednesday I'll be giving a talk on my research on the early life influences on obesity and hypertension among adults in Mexico. I will also speak on the links between early life conditions and health and cognitive development among adolescents in Mexico, again with a special emphasis on obesity. My presentation will follow a talk by my colleague Ulrike Muench, who will be presenting her very interesting research on gender gaps in wages paid to nurses (I believe male nurses get paid more) and the extent to which various theories may explain these differentials.
As of now, I think my talk will be pretty low-key. I plan on going through the basics of the biology linking birth and early childhood events to later health and discuss and then talk why this knowledge could be useful in enriching our understanding when and how economic factors (technological change leading to decreases in activity levels and food price declines leading to increases in income) work to lead to increases in body weight and any associated disorders. I will also present some preliminary econometric models attempting to (1) recover causal impacts of early life factors on these outcomes and (2) illustrate how the manner in which body weight (as well as blood pressure and glucose tolerance) respond to the aforementioned economic factors depends highly on environmental conditions faced at the beginning of life. Most importantly, I will unveil my research agenda for the next several months on these and related topics.
The seminar will be this Weds, Nov 5th from 1:30 - 3 PM in Rm 105 at 60 College Street (LEPH). Ulrike will open and I'll follow on as the second act. Feel free to join us if you are interested!
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