Mass shootings and Infant Health in the United States

Rakesh Banerjee and Tushar Bharati
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Rakesh Banerjee: University of Exeter Business School

No 20-16, Economics Discussion / Working Papers from The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics

Abstract: We use the spatial and temporal variation in mass shooting incidents to show that babies born in a county have, on average, lower weight and gestational age at birth, and are more likely to be low birth weight (bw < 2500) if their in utero period coincides with a higher number of fatalities in mass shooting incidents in the county. Infant mortality rates are also higher in years with higher fatalities. Using exogenous variation in the media coverage of mass shooting incidents due to competing newsworthy events, we provide suggestive evidence that the negative effect of mass shootings might be due to the psychological stress from exposure to news coverage of shooting incidents.

Keywords: mass shootings; infant mortality; birth weight; mental stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I18 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ure
Note: MD5 = af57ee93a365d402554131b397784488
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Mass shootings and Infant Health in the United States (2021)
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