日時：7月28日（木）15:15-16:45
報告者：Rong Fu （早稲田大学）
場所：2号館11階経済学部会議室B & ZOOM（HyFlex）
幹事：長谷部拓也
言語：英語
タイトル： In Utero Exposure to Radiation Fear and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident
要旨：
We study the effects of exposure to radiation fear in utero on health at birth and five years later, using universal birth records linked to Censuses in Japan. We are the first to assess maternal stress due to a risk factor that is intangible and uncertain—radiation exposure. We leverage the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in 2011 and create a quasi-experimental setting by focusing on children whose expected birthdates were within a 280-day window to the accident. We find radiation fear in utero causes a 30-gram decrease in birth weight, with a 19% and 38% increase in the risks of low birth weight and preterm delivery, respectively. The effects are more pronounced if expectant mothers are less educated or have toddlers, and if expectant fathers work in agriculture, indicating that the ability to collect information is important for stress alleviation and that food contamination is the main source of radiation fear. The findings have immediate implications for offspring health loss owing to maternal stress from intangible risk factors, such as infectious viruses.

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