Working Paper: NBER ID: w2346
Authors: Hope Corman; Theodore Joyce; Michael Grossman
Abstract: This study compares the cost-effectiveness of various health inputs and government programs in reducing race-specific neonatal mortality or death in the first twenty-seven days of life. Approximately two-thirds of all infant deaths occur within this time period. The programs and inputs at issue are teenage family planning use, the supplemental food program for women, infants and children (WIC), use of community health centers and maternal and infant care projects, abortion, prenatal care, and neonatal intensive care. Using an economic model of the family as the analytical framework, effectiveness is determined by using ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares to estimate infant health production functions across large counties in the U.S. in 1977. We find the early initiation of prenatal care to be the most cost-effective means of reducing neonatal mortality rate for blacks and whites. Moreover, blacks benefit more per dollar of input use than whites. Neonatal intensive care, although the most effective means of reducing neonatal mortality rates, is one of the least cost-effective strategies.
Keywords: Infant Mortality; Cost-Effectiveness; Prenatal Care; Neonatal Intensive Care
JEL Codes: I12; I18
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| black infants benefit more from prenatal care than white infants (J13) | racial disparity in cost-effectiveness (J17) |
| early initiation of prenatal care (J13) | reduction of neonatal mortality rates (J13) |
| neonatal intensive care (J13) | reduction of neonatal mortality rates (J13) |
| abortion (J13) | reduction of neonatal mortality rates (J13) |
| family planning services (J13) | reduction of neonatal mortality rates (J13) |
| health inputs (I12) | birth weight (J13) |
| birth weight (J13) | reduction of neonatal mortality rates (J13) |
| early initiation of prenatal care (J13) | improved neonatal survival rates (J13) |