Can wealth shocks have intergenerational health consequences? We use the partial compensation slaveholders received after the 1834 slave emancipation in the British Cape Colony to measure the intergenerational effects of a wealth loss on longevity. We find that a greater loss of slave wealth shortened the lifespans of the generation of slaveholders that experienced the shock albeit these effects are usually small and mostly confined to older cohorts of slaveholders who likely exploited slaves both as labor and capital inputs. The lifespans of those of the second generation who survived infancy were unaffected by the shortfalls and no effects of the shortfall were found for the third generation.

财富冲击会对代际健康产生影响吗？我们使用 1834 年英属开普殖民地奴隶解放后奴隶主获得的部分补偿来衡量财富损失对寿命的代际影响。我们发现，奴隶财富的更大损失缩短了经历冲击的一代奴隶主的寿命，尽管这些影响通常很小，而且主要局限于年长的奴隶主群体，他们可能将奴隶作为劳动力和资本投入进行剥削。在婴儿期幸存下来的第二代人的寿命不受短缺的影响，第三代也没有发现短缺的影响。