The Health Impacts of Hospital Delivery Practices

David Card, Alessandra Fenizia and David Silver

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2023, vol. 15, issue 2, 42-81

Abstract: Treatment practices vary widely across hospitals, often with little connection to patients' medical needs. We assess impacts of these differences in delivery practices at childbirth. We find that infants quasi-randomly delivered at hospitals with higher C-section rates are born in better shape and are less likely to be readmitted, with suggestive evidence of improved survival. These benefits are driven by avoidance of prolonged labors that pose risks to infant health. In contrast, these infants are more likely to visit the emergency department for respiratory-related problems, consistent with a large observational literature linking C-section to chronic reductions in respiratory health.

JEL-codes: I11 I12 J13 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Health Impacts of Hospital Delivery Practices (2020)
Working Paper: The Health Impacts of Hospital Delivery Practices (2019)
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DOI: 10.1257/pol.20210034

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