Working Paper: NBER ID: w15309
Authors: William N. Evans; Craig L. Garthwaite
Abstract: Federal and state laws passed in the late 1990 increased considerably postpartum stays for newborns. Using all births in California over the 1995-2001 period, 2SLS estimates suggest that for the average newborn impacted by the law, increased treatment intensity had modest and statistically insignificant (p-value>0.05) impacts on readmission probabilities. Allowing the treatment effect to vary by pre-existing conditions or the pre-law propensity score of being discharged early, two objective measures of medical need, demonstrates that the law had large and statistically significant impacts for those with the greatest likelihood of a readmission. These results demonstrate heterogeneity in the returns to greater treatment intensity, and the returns to the average and marginal patient vary considerably.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I10; I12; I18
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Complications during delivery (J89) | Increased postpartum hospital stays (I11) |
| Increased postpartum hospital stays (I11) | Newborn readmission rates (J13) |
| Increased postpartum hospital stays (I11) | Newborn readmission rates for newborns with higher medical needs (I11) |
| Increased postpartum hospital stays (I11) | Health outcomes for newborns with complications (I14) |
| Increased postpartum hospital stays (I11) | Health outcomes for newborns without complications (I14) |