There is now fairly substantial evidence of a socioeconomic gradient in low birthweight for developed countries. The standard summary statistic for this gradient is the concentration index. Using data from the recently published Growing Up in Ireland survey, this paper calculates this index for...

This paper measures the degree of inequality of opportunity in birthweight and birthlength for a sample of Irish infants. The sample is partitioned into eight types by mothers' education and mothers' smoking status. Stochastic dominance tests reveal the presence of inequality of opportunity but...

This paper examines developments in childhood and adolescent obesity in Ireland using two waves of the Growing Up in Ireland survey. Obesity appears to level off between the two waves though there is tentative evidence that the socioeconomic gradient, measured with respect to maternal education...

This paper analyses the socioeconomic gradient of chilidhood obesity in Ireland using the Growing Up in Ireland data with three innovations compared to previous work in the area. A different measure of socioeconomic status, maternal education, is employed. In addition, the depth and severity of...

Recent developments in the inequality literature has stressed the importance of inequality of opportunity as opposed to inequality of outcome. In this paper we investigate the presence of ex post inequality of opportunity in two measures of educational achievement for a representative sample of...

This paper examines multidimensional poverty for three waves of a cohort of Irish children ranging from ages 9 to 17. Poverty is measured over the dimensions of health, education and family resources and both unidimensional and multidimensional poverty is examined. Both show a clear gradient...

There is a well-established socioeconomic gradient in cognitive test scores for children. This gradient emerges at very early ages and there is also some evidence that it can widen as children age. We investigate this phenomenon with two longitudinal cohorts of Irish children who take such tests...

This paper examines mobility and changes in Body Mass Index (BMI) for a sample of Irish children across three waves of the longitudinal Growing Up in Ireland dataset. Particular attention is paid to transitions across the key BMI thresholds of overweight and obesity. Analysis is carried out by...

This paper examines the change in body mass index for a cohort of Irish children as they aged from 9 to 13 and decomposes the change into parts attributable to changes in observable characteristics and changes in returns to observable characteristics. The decomposition is carried out over the...