Working Paper: NBER ID: w20400
Authors: Janet Currie; Ishita Rajani
Abstract: There is a large literature suggesting that "WIC works" to improve birth outcomes. However, methodological limitations related to selection into the WIC program have left room for doubt about this conclusion. This paper uses birth records from New York City to address the limitations of the previous literature. We estimate models with mother fixed effects to control for fixed characteristics of mothers and we directly investigate the way that time-varying characteristics of mothers affect selection into the WIC program. We find that WIC is associated with reductions in low birth weight, even among full term infants, and with reductions in the probability that a child is "small for dates." These improvements are associated with a reduction in the probability that the mother gained too little weight during pregnancy. Improvements tend to be largest for first born children. We also find that women on WIC are more likely to be diagnosed with chronic conditions, and receive more intensive medical services, a finding that may reflect improved access to medical care.
Keywords: WIC; birth outcomes; New York City; mother fixed effects; low birth weight
JEL Codes: I1; I12; I3
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| WIC participation (I38) | reduction in low birth weight (I14) |
| WIC participation (I38) | reduction in probability of low birth weight for firstborn children (J19) |
| WIC participation (I38) | decrease in likelihood of infants being small for dates (J19) |
| WIC participation (I38) | improvement in maternal weight gain during pregnancy (I15) |
| WIC participation (I38) | increased complications of labor and delivery (J89) |
| WIC participation (I38) | increased NICU admissions (J13) |