Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/141569 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9810
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We investigate the impact of early-life medical interventions on low-risk newborn health. A policy rule in The Netherlands creates large discontinuities in medical treatments at gestational week 37. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find no health benefits from additional treatments for average newborns. However, there is substantial heterogeneity in returns to treatments with significant health benefits for newborns in the lowest income quartile and no benefits in higher income quartiles. This seems due to increased maternal stress from referral to an obstetrician among higher-income mothers, heterogeneous effects of home births, and potential difficulties in risk screening among low-income women.
Subjects: 
medical interventions
birth
heterogeneity
mortality
JEL: 
I11
I12
I18
J13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
803.13 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.