Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/263371 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15155
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
In this paper, we estimate the effect of maternal displacements during pregnancy on birth outcomes by leveraging population-level administrative data from Brazil on formal employment linked to birth records. We find that involuntary job separation of pregnant single mothers leads to a decrease in birth weight (BW) by around 28 grams (-1% ca.) and an increase in the incidence of low BW by 10.5%. In contrast, we find a significant positive effect on the mean BW and a decrease in the incidence of low BW for mothers in a marriage or stable union. We document more pronounced negative effects for single mothers with lower earnings and no effect for mothers in the highest income quartile, suggesting a mitigating role of self-insurance from savings. Exploiting variation from unemployment benefits eligibility, we also provide evidence on the mitigating role of formal unemployment insurance using a Regression Discontinuity design exploiting the cutoff from the unemployment insurance eligibility rule.
Subjects: 
dismissals
birth outcomes
informal insurance
unemployment insurance
JEL: 
D14
I10
J65
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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