The Lasting Effect of Iran Occupation in WWII on the Height of People in Tehran

Abstract

Can a historical shock such as Iran's occupation in world war two and the resulting famine affect people's health up to the age of 70? In this study, we do a natural experiment during the allied occupation interval in Iran. First, we documented the most challenging period of this shock based on historical evidence. Then we compare people who were prenatally exposed to this period with those who were born in similar periods immediately before and immediately after. To find the causal effect, we use various fixed effects and controls in the comparisons. The study results show that those whose in-utero period overlapped with this shock's most severe period are, on average, about 1.1 cm shorter than the two groups before and after them. These results are significant and robust and adding control variables, fixed effects, and small changes at the beginning and end of the period do not significantly change the results. Our results also indicate that the fetal period had a more significant impact on height than the first two years of life. This research contains a policy message for pregnant mothers, and health and welfare policymakers.

Keywords

• health economics
• development economics
• fetal origins hypothesis
• child economics
• wwii consequences in iran
• poverty policy.