Universal Investments in Toddler Health. Learning from a Large Government Trial

Jennifer L. Baker, Lise G. Bjerregaard, Christian Dahl, Torben S. D. Johansen, Emil N. Sørensen and Miriam Wüst
Additional contact information
Torben S. D. Johansen: University of Southern Denmark
Emil N. Sørensen: University of Bristol

No 16270, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Exploiting a 1960s government trial in Copenhagen, we study the long-run and inter-generational effects of preventive care for toddlers. We combine administrative data with handwritten nurse records to document universal treatment take-up and positive health effects for treated children over the life course. Beneficial health impacts are largest for disadvantaged children and may even extend to their offspring. While initial trial cohorts experienced positive health and socioeconomic impacts, those are absent for the final cohorts. This heterogeneity across individuals' background and cohorts documents that universal toddler care can alleviate inequalities at low costs, and that the counterfactual policy environment matters.

Keywords: early-life investments; health; public policy; government trial; Denmark; digitization; automated transcription (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 99 pages
Date: 2023-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-hea, nep-inv and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp16270.pdf (application/pdf)

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:iza:izadps:dp16270

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().