Infant Health and Longevity: Evidence from a Historical Trial in Sweden

Sonia Bhalotra, Martin Karlsson and Therese Nilsson ()

No 8969, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper investigates the potential of an infant intervention to improve life expectancy, contributing to emerging interest in the early life origins of chronic disease. We analyse a pioneering program trialled in Sweden in the 1930s, which provided information, support and monitoring of infant care. Using birth certificate data from parish records matched to death registers, we estimate that the average duration of program exposure in infancy led to a 1.54% point decline in the risk of infant death (23% of baseline risk) and a 2.37% decline in the risk of dying by age 75 (6.5% of baseline risk).

Keywords: life expectancy; infant health; program evaluation; early life interventions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H41 I15 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2015-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-eur, nep-hea and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Published - published in: Journal of the European Economic Association, 2017, 15 (1), 1101 - 1157

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Working Paper: Infant health and longevity: evidence from a historical trial in Sweden (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8969

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