Discharge on the day of birth, parental response and health and schooling outcomes

Hans Sievertsen and Miriam Wüst

Journal of Health Economics, 2017, vol. 55, issue C, 121-138

Abstract: Exploiting the Danish roll-out of same-day discharge policies after uncomplicated births, we find that treated newborns have a higher probability of hospital readmission in the first month after birth. While these short-run effects may indicate substitution of hospital stays with readmissions, we also find that—in the longer run—a same-day discharge decreases children's 9th grade GPA. This effect is driven by children and mothers, who prior to the policy change would have been least likely to experience a same-day discharge. Using administrative and survey data to assess potential mechanisms, we show that a same-day discharge impacts those parents’ health investments and their children's medium-run health. Our findings point to important negative effects of policies that expand same-day discharge policies to broad populations of mothers and children.

Keywords: Postpartum hospital stay; Early investments; Long-run health; Schooling outcomes; Parental response (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I12 I14 I18 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:55:y:2017:i:c:p:121-138

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.06.012

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