Spillover Effects of Early-Life Medical Interventions

Sanni Breining (), N. Meltem Daysal, Marianne Simonsen and Mircea Trandafir
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Sanni Breining: Aarhus University

No 9086, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We investigate the spillover effects of early-life medical treatments on the siblings of treated children. We use a regression discontinuity design that exploits changes in medical treatments across the very low birth weight (VLBW) cutoff. Using administrative data from Denmark, we first confirm the findings in the previous literature that children who are slightly below the VLBW cutoff have better short- and long-term health, and higher math test scores in 9th grade. We next investigate spillover effects on siblings and find no evidence of an impact on their health outcomes. However, we find substantial positive spillovers on all our measures of academic achievement. Our estimates suggest that siblings of focal children who were slightly below the VLBW cutoff have higher 9th grade language and math test scores, as well as higher probability of enrolling in a high school by age 19. Our results suggest that improved interactions within the family may be an important pathway behind the observed spillover effects.

Keywords: spillovers; schooling; medical care; birth; children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I12 I18 I21 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 80 pages
Date: 2015-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

Published - substantially revised version published in: Review of Economics and Statistics, 2022, 104 (1), 1-16.

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Journal Article: Spillover Effects of Early-Life Medical Interventions (2022)
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