Ramadan fasting, sex-ratio at birth, and birth weight: No effects on Muslim infants born in Germany

•I estimate the effect of Ramadan fasting on Muslim newborns in Germany.•The analysis is based on more than one million observations.•In contrast to earlier studies no evidence for any medically relevant effect is found.

Recent economic studies have shown negative effects of intrauterine exposure to Ramadan on birth outcomes and long-term economic outcomes. I examine the effect of Ramadan fasting on birth weight and the fraction of male births in Germany, which has large and diverse Muslim communities. Using data on 1 million births to Muslim mothers from 1996 to 2010, I find virtually no effect of Ramadan exposure on either outcome. Earlier results from other countries based on smaller samples can therefore not be generalized.