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MYOPIC MISERY: MATERNAL DEPRESSION, CHILD INVESTMENTS, AND THE NEUROBIOLOGICAL POVERTY TRAP

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2017

Holger Strulik
Holger Strulik*
Affiliation:
University of Goettingen
*
Address correspondence to: Holger Strulik, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics, Platz der Goettinger Sieben 3, 37073 Goettingen, Germany; e-mail: holger.strulik@wiwi.uni-goettingen.de.
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Abstract

In this paper, I explore in an overlapping generations framework, a mechanism motivating a neurobiological poverty trap. Poverty causes stress and depression in individuals susceptible to depression. Poor and depressed individuals discount the future at a higher rate and invest less in the human capital of their children than mentally healthy or rich individuals. This gene–environment interaction generates a vicious cycle in which poor individuals inherit not only susceptibility to depression, but also stress and poverty. I show that a successful one-time intervention has the power to permanently eliminate the neurobiological poverty trap.

Keywords

Child InvestmentDepressionDiscountingGene–Environment Interaction
Type
Articles
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , March 2019 , pp. 522 - 534
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Andrea Cornia, Carl-Johan Dalgaard, Michael Grimm, Sophia Kan, two anonymous referees, and an associate editor for helpful comments.

References

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