The Dynamic Relationship between Low Birthweight and Induced Abortion in New York City: An Aggregate Time-Series Analysis

Ted Joyce and Michael Grossman

No 3211, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We use a vector autoregression to examine the dynamic relationship between the race-specific percentage of pregnancies terminated by induced abortion and the race-specific percentage of low-birthweight births in New York City. With monthly data beginning in 1972, we find that induced abortion explains low birthweight for blacks, but not for whites. There is no evidence of feedback from low birthweight to induced abortion. Simulations based on the model reveal that an unanticipated decrease in the percentage of pregnancies terminated by induced abortion results in an increase in the rate of low-birthweight births among blacks. The findings suggest that restrictions on legalized abortion in New York City would worsen birth outcomes among blacks.

Date: 1989-12
Note: EH
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published as Journal of Health Economics, Vol. 9, pp. 273-288, (1990).

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w3211.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The dynamic relationship between low birthweight and induced abortion in New York City: An aggregate time-series analysis (1990)
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:nbr:nberwo:3211

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w3211

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().