The Impact of Mothers' Earnings on Health Inputs and Infant Health

Naci Mocan, Christian Raschke and Bulent Unel ()

No 19434, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of mothers' earnings on birth weight and gestational age of infants. It also analyzes the impact of earnings on mothers' consumption of prenatal medical care, and their propensity to smoke and drink during pregnancy. The paper uses census-division- and year-specific skill-biased technology shocks as an instrument for mothers' earnings and employs a two-sample instrumental variables strategy. About 14 million records of births between 1989 and 2004 are used from the Natality Detail files along with the CPS Annual Demographic Files from the same period. The results reveal that an increase in weekly earnings prompts an increase in prenatal care of low-skill mothers (those who have at most a high school degree) who are not likely to be on Medicaid, and that earnings have a small positive impact on birth weight and gestational age of the newborns of these mothers. An increase in earnings does not influence the health of newborns of high-skill mothers (those with at least some college education). Variations in earnings have no impact on birth weight for mothers who are likely to be on Medicaid.

JEL-codes: I10 I12 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-hea
Note: EH
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Mocan, Naci & Raschke, Christian & Unel, Bulent, 2015. "The impact of mothers’ earnings on health inputs and infant health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 204-223.

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Journal Article: The impact of mothers’ earnings on health inputs and infant health (2015)
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