The Effects of a Household Income Shock on Infant Health. Evidence from a Welfare Benefits Reform

Simon Janssen

VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy from Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association

Abstract: We investigate the effect of a large welfare benefits cut on child health. Our identification strategy exploits a policy reform of the German welfare system that reduced benefits for families with infants by about 30 percent of their previous household income. The empirical analysis relies on novel and unique register data that includes detailed information about hospitalization, doctor visits, and pharmacy use for about 45, 000 children who were born before or after the reform. Although children from welfare families are on average less healthy than children from non-welfare families, the welfare cut had no additional negative impact on child health.

Keywords: Childhood Health; Socioeconomic Status; Household Income (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-hea
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181607

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