Working Paper: NBER ID: w14671
Authors: Phillip B. Levine; Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach
Abstract: This paper examines the impact of public health insurance expansions through both Medicaid and SCHIP on children's educational outcomes, measured by 4th and 8th grade reading and math test scores, available from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). We use a triple difference estimation strategy, taking advantage of the cross-state variation over time and across ages in children's health insurance eligibility. Using this approach, we find that test scores in reading, but not math, increased for those children affected at birth by increased health insurance eligibility. A 50 percentage point increase in eligibility is found to increase reading test scores by 0.09 standard deviations. We also examine whether the improvements in educational outcomes can be at least partially attributed to improvements in health status itself. First, we provide further evidence that increases in eligibility are linked to improvements in health status at birth. Second, we show that better health status at birth (measured by rates of low birth-weight and infant mortality), is linked to improved educational outcomes. Although the methods used to support this last finding do not completely eliminate potentially confounding factors, we believe it is strongly suggestive that improving children's health will improve their classroom performance.
Keywords: public health insurance; educational outcomes; Medicaid; SCHIP; test scores
JEL Codes: I18; I21
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| public health insurance eligibility at birth (I13) | reading test scores (Y10) |
| public health insurance eligibility (I13) | health status at birth (I14) |
| health status at birth (I14) | educational outcomes (I26) |
| public health insurance eligibility (I13) | educational outcomes (I26) |
| health improvements (I14) | reading test scores (Y10) |
| health improvements (I14) | math scores (C12) |