Low birth weight and health expenditures from birth to late adolescence

Michael Hummer, Thomas Lehner () and Gerald Pruckner
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Thomas Lehner: Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

No 2012-06, Economics working papers from Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Abstract: Using administrative panel data of health insurants, we estimate the effects of low birth weight on health service utilization among children and young adults between birth and 21 years old. To account for time-invariant heterogeneity of mothers, we use sibling fixed- effects estimation. We find that low birth weight strongly increases subsequent health expenditures and that the effect is particularly pronounced in the first year of life. Starting in compulsory schooling, we observe a shift in expenditures to mental-health problems. Whereas the effects on physical health disappear over time, we provide evidence that mental-health problems prevail until early adulthood. We therefore suggest a screening program tailored to the conditions more likely to be contracted by low-birth-weight children in order to mitigate the negative health consequences.

Keywords: Low birth weight; health expenditures; sibling fixed-effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2012-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Low birth weight and health expenditures from birth to late adolescence (2014)
Working Paper: Low birth weight and health expenditures from birth to late adolescence (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jku:econwp:2012_06

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