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Prenatal care and birthweight in Mexico

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  • Fidel Gonzalez
  • Santosh Kumar

Abstract

We estimate the marginal impact of prenatal care (PNC) on birth outcomes in Mexico using nationally representative data on about 14 million births from 2009 to 2014. Given the possible self-selection into PNC, we attempt to identify the causal impact of PNC on birth outcomes by estimating an instrumental variable model. We find positive impacts of increased prenatal visits on birthweight (BW), length and apgar score of the newborn. Moreover, the impacts of PNC on birth outcomes differ by mother’s education, development level of the municipality where the mother resides and BW distribution. We also find suggestive evidence that PNC visits affect birth outcomes through the reduction in pre-term births.

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  • Fidel Gonzalez & Santosh Kumar, 2018. "Prenatal care and birthweight in Mexico," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(10), pages 1156-1170, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:50:y:2018:i:10:p:1156-1170
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2017.1355540
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    1. Santosh Kumar & Fidel Gonzalez, 2018. "Effects of health insurance on birth weight in Mexico," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(8), pages 1149-1159, August.
    2. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila & Karbownik, Krzysztof, 2022. "The effects of incentivizing early prenatal care on infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    3. Santosh Kumar & Fidel Gonzalez, 2020. "The Quantile effects of prenatal care on birth weight in Mexico," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(2), pages 1498-1507.
    4. Santosh Kumar & Kaushalendra Kumar & Ramanan Laxminarayan & Arindam Nandi, 2022. "Birth Weight and Cognitive Development during Childhood: Evidence from India," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 41(2), pages 155-175, June.
    5. Hamid Reza Oskorouchi, 2019. "Learning to Fight: Afghan Child Health and In‐utero Exposure to Conflict," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 45(2), pages 275-300, June.

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