Table 4

Effects of Sunshine Hours during Pregnancy and First Years of Life on Adiposity Risk at Age 6

	Baseline	Probit	Additional Controls	District × Year and District × Month of Birth FE	District × Year and District × Month of Birth FE + Additional Controls	Internationally Defined Cutoffs
	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
Panel A: Overweight
Sunshine hours in pregnancy	−0.062	−0.062	−0.055	−0.075	−0.070	−0.065
	(0.057)	(0.059)	(0.056)	(0.059)	(0.058)	(0.049)
Sunshine hours first 6 months of life	−0.167^**	−0.161^**	−0.154^**	−0.115	−0.109	−0.217^***
	(0.07)	(0.085)	(0.068)	(0.07)	(0.069)	(0.075)
Sunshine hours 6–11 months after birth	−0.032	−0.039	−0.022	−0.059	−0.050	−0.003
	(0.077)	(0.066)	(0.079)	(0.071)	(0.076)	(0.063)
Sunshine hours 12–80 months after birth	0.005	0.004	0.013	−0.002	0.008	−0.001
	(0.04)	(0.033)	(0.04)	(0.042)	(0.043)	(0.043)
Panel B: Obesity
Sunshine hours in pregnancy	−0.035	−0.036	−0.031	−0.042	−0.039	−0.030
	(0.036)	(0.036)	(0.037)	(0.04)	(0.041)	(0.022)
Sunshine hours first 6 months of life	−0.129^**	−0.125^***	−0.122^**	−0.097^**	−0.094^**	−0.079^**
	(0.049)	(0.052)	(0.05)	(0.038)	(0.037)	(0.037)
Sunshine hours 6–11 months after birth	0.048	0.040	0.051	0.018	0.019	0.056
	(0.053)	(0.04)	(0.054)	(0.048)	(0.051)	(0.042)
Sunshine hours 12–80 months after birth	−0.008	0.010	−0.001	−0.029	−0.020	0.006
	(0.02)	(0.021)	(0.02)	(0.019)	(0.02)	(0.012)
Panel C: Severe Obesity
Sunshine hours in pregnancy	−0.008	−0.008	−0.007	−0.018	−0.018
	(0.014)	(0.016)	(0.013)	(0.014)	(0.013)
Sunshine hours first 6 months of life	−0.062^***	−0.057^***	−0.062^***	−0.063^**	−0.066^***
	(0.021)	(0.023)	(0.021)	(0.023)	(0.023)
Sunshine hours 6–11 months after birth	−0.002	−0.001	−0.003	−0.012	−0.013
	(0.017)	(0.017)	(0.017)	(0.015)	(0.015)
Sunshine hours 12–80 months after birth	0.002	0.003	0.001	−0.007	−0.008
	(0.009)	(0.009)	(0.008)	(0.006)	(0.006)
Number of observations	666,258

Data sources: School entry examinations, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Brandenburg. Sunshine hours from 21 weather stations.
Notes: The table shows the effects of 100 additional sunshine hours (in percentage points) during pregnancy, in the first six months after birth, between months six and 12 after birth, and between months 12 and 80 after birth, on children’s risk of overweight, obesity, and severe obesity at age six. Overweight, obesity, and severe obesity are defined, respectively, as ≥85th, ≥95th, and ≥99th percentile in the gender- and age (in months)-specific BMI distributions. In our baseline specification in Column 1, we estimate linear probability models and control for, as in Equation 1, district-by-year of birth and month of birth fixed effects. In Column 2, we estimate probit models instead and report marginal effects. In Column 3, we add detailed age-specific gender dummies as controls in the linear probability models. Results in Column 4 expands our baseline specification in Column 1 and includes district-by-year of birth, district-by-month of birth, and year of birth-by-month of birth fixed effects. In Column 5, we add to the specification in Column 4 detailed age-specific gender dummies as controls (as in Column 3). In Column 6, we use internationally defined cutoff points to classify children as overweight and obese as in Cole et al. (2000). Cole et al. (2000) do not define a cutoff for severe obesity. Standard errors are clustered at the “weather station district” level (districts that are assigned different weather station combinations, 28 clusters). ^*p < 0.1, ^**p < 0.05, ^***p < 0.01.