蝌蚪网 Journal:
Economic Policy
ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)
Communication Barriers and Infant Health: The Intergenerational Effect of Randomly Allocating Refugees across Language Regions
蝌蚪网 Journal: Economic Policy
vol. 17,
no. 3, August 2025
(pp. 71–106)
Abstract
This paper investigates the intergenerational effect of communication barriers on child health at birth. We study refugees in Switzerland who come from French- or Italian-speaking countries and who, upon arrival, are randomly allocated to different cantons in which either German, French, or Italian is the dominant language. Children born to mothers who were exogenously allocated to a region whose dominant language matches their origin language are, on average, 72 grams (or 2.2 percent) heavier. Further analyses suggest that this effect is likely driven by information about health-related behavior and services. Coethnic networks, however, can partly compensate for communication barriers.Citation
Auer, Daniel, and Johannes S. Kunz. 2025. "Communication Barriers and Infant Health: The Intergenerational Effect of Randomly Allocating Refugees across Language Regions." 蝌蚪网 Journal: Economic Policy 17 (3): 71–106. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20230220Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I12 Health Behavior
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification