Early Life Health Interventions and Academic Achievement

Prashant Bharadwaj (), Katrine Løken and Christopher Neilson
Additional contact information
Prashant Bharadwaj: University of California, San Diego

No 6864, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper studies the effect of improved neonatal health care on mortality and long run academic achievement in school. We use the idea that medical treatments often follow rules of thumb for assigning care to patients, such as the classification of Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW), which assigns infants special care at a specific birth weight cutoff. Using detailed administrative data on schooling and birth records from Chile and Norway, we establish that children who receive extra medical care at birth have lower mortality rates and higher test scores and grades in school. These gains are in the order of 0.15-0.22 standard deviations.

Keywords: neonatal care; regression discontinuity; child development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 J13 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 71 pages
Date: 2012-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-hea and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: American Economic Review, 2013, 103 (5), 1862-91

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https://docs.iza.org/dp6864.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Early Life Health Interventions and Academic Achievement (2013)
Working Paper: EARLY LIFE HEALTH INTERVENTIONS AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT (2012)
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