Code for: Communication Barriers and Infant Health: Intergenerational Effects of Randomly Allocating Refugees Across Language Region

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Daniel Auer, Collegio Carlo Alberto & University of Mannheim; Johannes S. Kunz, Monash University

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
replicationfiles			11/15/2024 10:00:PM

Project Citation:

Auer, Daniel , and Kunz, Johannes S. Code for: Communication Barriers and Infant Health: Intergenerational Effects of Randomly Allocating Refugees Across Language Region. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2025. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-07-02. https://doi.org/10.3886/E208374V1

Project Description

Summary:

This repository provides the Stata code for the article "Communication Barriers and Infant Health: The Intergenerational Effect of Randomly Allocating Refugees Across Language Regions," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.

We provide the abstract of the paper below:
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 matched their origin language are, on average, 72 grams (or 2.2%) heavier. Further analyses suggest that this effect is likely driven by information about health-related behavior and services. Co-ethnic networks, however, can partly compensate for communication barriers.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Infant health; language; refugee allocation; mother networks

JEL Classification:
      F22 International Migration
      I12 Health Behavior
      J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
      J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
      J61 Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
      J62 Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

Geographic Coverage: Switzerland

Time Period(s): 2010 – 2017

Universe: All refugees arriving in Switzerland matched with all birth records in the country and various auxiliary data (individual registries and aggregated country of origin and destination country information).

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Published Versions

V1 [2025-07-02]

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DDI 2.5

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