The Price of Labor: Evaluating the Impact of Eliminating User Fees on Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes

Anne Fitzpatrick

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2018, vol. 108, 412-15

Abstract: Since 2001, several sub-Saharan African countries have eliminated user fees for childbirth. Although intended to improve maternal and infant health outcomes, service quality also fell as facilities became overburdened. In this paper I combine DHS surveys on births from countries eliminating user fees. I identify the effect of user fee elimination using (i) a maternal fixed effect and (ii) an event study within a small geographic area. I find that user fees increase the likelihood of delivery at public sector facilities by 2–7 percentage points. I also find that user fee elimination reduces maternal mortality but may increase neonatal mortality.

JEL-codes: I12 I18 J13 J16 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20181118
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20181118 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=7129 (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... 0YETeMp6p6chNeqOUSHg (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... 3n8lauyb28CiC6MWNCir (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:apandp:v:108:y:2018:p:412-15

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/subscribe.html

Access Statistics for this article

AEA Papers and Proceedings is currently edited by William Johnson and Kelly Markel

More articles in AEA Papers and Proceedings from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().