Baby Bonuses and Early-Life Health Outcomes: Using Regression Discontinuity to Evaluate the Causal Impact of an Unconditional Cash Transfer

John Lynch (), Aurélie Meunier (), Rhiannon Pilkington () and Stefanie Schurer
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John Lynch: University of Adelaide
Rhiannon Pilkington: University of Adelaide

No 12230, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We use administrative data from South Australia to study the impact of an unconditional cash transfer on child health. We use the unanticipated introduction of the Australian Baby Bonus (ABB), a one-off payment of AU$3,000 (US$2,400) made to families with a newborn, to isolate its causal effect. The ABB reduces the number of potentially preventable hospitalizations and emergency department presentations for respiratory problems in the first year of life. Findings from survey data suggest that households spent the windfall income on electricity and private health insurance. There is no robust evidence that the ABB increased accidents or non-essential good consumption.

Keywords: unconditional cash transfers; baby bonus; child respiratory health; health care utilization; regression discontinuity design; natural experiment; linked administrative data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2019-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ias
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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