Infant Health Care and Long-Term Outcomes

Løken, Katrine and Kjell G Salvanes
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Katrine Vellesen Løken

No 11652, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: A growing literature documents the positive long-term effects of policy-induced improvements in early-life health and nutrition. However, there is still scarce evidence on early-life health programs targeting a large share of the population and the role of such programs in increasing intergenerational mobility. This paper uses the rollout of mother and child health care centers in Norway, which commenced in the 1930s, to study the long-term consequences of increasing access to well-child visits. These well-child visits included a physical examination and the provision of information about adequate infant nutrition. Our first results show that access to mother and child health care centers in the first year of life increased the completed years of schooling by 0.15 years and earnings by two percent. Our second set of results reveals that these effects were stronger for children from a low socioeconomic background and contribute to a 10 percent reduction in the persistence of educational attainment across generations. Our third set of findings suggest that better nutrition within the first year of life is the main mechanism. In particular, we find positive effects on adult height and that individuals suffer from fewer health risks at age 40. In addition, we show that access to well-child visits decreased infant mortality from diarrhea whereas infant mortality from pneumonia, tuberculosis, or congenital malformations are not affected. Finally, we investigate the costs of the program and show that investments in mother and child health care centers pass a simple cost--benefit analysis.

Keywords: Health; Infant health care; Education; Earnings; Welfare state (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Infant Health Care and Long-Term Outcomes (2019)
Working Paper: Infant Health Care and Long-Term Outcomes (2018)
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