Working Paper: NBER ID: w9209
Authors: Anna Aizer; Janet Currie
Abstract: This study focuses on network effects' in the utilization of publicly funded prenatal care using Vital Statistics data from California for 1989 to 2000. Networks are defined using 5-digit zipcodes and a woman's racial or ethnic group. Like others, we find evidence that the use of public programs is highly correlated within groups defined using race/ethnicity and neighborhoods. These correlations persist even when we control for many unobserved characteristics by including zipcode-year fixed effects, and when we focus on the interaction between own group behavior and measures of the potential for contacts with other members of the group ( contact availability'). However, the richness of our data allows us to go further and to conduct several tests of one hypothesis about networks: That the estimated effects represent information sharing within groups. The results cast doubt on the idea that the observed correlations can be interpreted as evidence of information sharing, and point instead to differences in the behavior of the institutions serving different groups of low-income women as the primary explanation for group-level differences in the take-up of this important public program.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I18; I38
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| use of public programs highly correlated within groups defined by race, ethnicity, and neighborhoods (H53) | strong group-level correlation (C92) |
| controlling for zipcode-year fixed effects (C33) | correlations persist (C10) |
| observed correlations do not support hypothesis of information sharing (D83) | similar estimated network effects for first and second births (J19) |
| estimated network effects significantly reduced or eliminated when including hospital-year fixed effects (C21) | women from different ethnic groups utilize different hospitals (J15) |
| network effects for foreign-born and native-born Hispanic women are similar (J79) | information sharing is not the primary driver of observed correlations (C10) |
| primary explanation for group-level differences in takeup of public maternity care programs lies in institutional behavior (J18) | differences in institutional behavior rather than information sharing (F55) |