 Disruptions to healthcare quality and early child health outcomes: Evidence from health-worker strikes in KenyaWilla Friedman, Anthony Keats and Martin Kavao Mutua Journal of Health Economics, 2022, vol. 86, issue C Abstract: This paper measures the effects of disruptions to healthcare quality at birth on early child health outcomes in Kenya. To identify impacts, we exploit variation in the timing and location of health-worker strikes at individual hospitals across the country between 1999 and 2014. Using data from Demographic Health Surveys, we find that children born during strikes are more likely to suffer a neonatal death. We find similar results using separate data collected in two informal settlements in Nairobi located near hospitals with frequent strikes. These results show that interruptions to healthcare quality can have large immediate health impacts, and suggests that status quo hospital care provides positive benefits. We also find suggestive evidence of reductions in later health investments, measured by vaccine take-up, among those who survive. This study provides the first rigorous evidence on the consequences of health-worker strikes, a frequent but understudied phenomenon in Sub-Saharan Africa. Keywords: Child mortality; Institutional delivery; Health-service provision (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:86:y:2022:i:c:s0167629622001096 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102694 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Health Economics is currently edited by J. P. Newhouse, A. J. Culyer, R. Frank, K. Claxton and T. McGuire More articles in Journal of Health Economics from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.