IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v26y2008i4p518-538.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why Wait?: Examining Delayed Wic Participation Among Pregnant Women

Author

Listed:
  • LAURA TIEHEN
  • ALISON JACKNOWITZ

Abstract

Despite the benefits of prenatal participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), many eligible women either do not participate or begin participation late in their pregnancies. Using recent nationally representative data, we find that more disadvantaged women are more likely to access WIC and, with some notable exceptions, to participate earlier in their pregnancies. Hispanic women, especially those with language difficulties, enroll in WIC later in their pregnancies. Early WIC participation, particularly among teenagers, is less likely among women experiencing a first birth and depends on the mother’s early recognition of her pregnancy. (JEL I18, I30)

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Tiehen & Alison Jacknowitz, 2008. "Why Wait?: Examining Delayed Wic Participation Among Pregnant Women," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(4), pages 518-538, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:26:y:2008:i:4:p:518-538
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-7287.2008.00101.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7287.2008.00101.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1465-7287.2008.00101.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barbara Devaney & Linda Bilheimer & Jennifer Schore, 1992. "Medicaid costs and birth outcomes: The effects of prenatal WIC participation and the use of prenatal care," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(4), pages 573-592.
    2. Swann Christopher A, 2007. "The Timing of Prenatal WIC Participation," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-27, January.
    3. Kotelchuck, M., 1994. "The Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index: Its US distribution and association with low birthweight," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 84(9), pages 1486-1489.
    4. Marianne P. Bitler & Janet Currie, 2005. "Does WIC work? The effects of WIC on pregnancy and birth outcomes," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(1), pages 73-91.
    5. Moffitt, Robert, 1983. "An Economic Model of Welfare Stigma," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(5), pages 1023-1035, December.
    6. L. Kowaleski-Jones & G. J. Duncan, "undated". "Effects of Participation in the WIC Food Assistance Program on Children’s Health and Development: Evidence from NLSY Children," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1207-00, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    7. Ahluwalia, I.B. & Hogan, V.K. & Grummer-Strawn, L. & Colville, W.R. & Peterson, A., 1998. "The effect of WIC participation on small-for-gestational-age births: Michigan, 1992," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 88(9), pages 1374-1377.
    8. Kowaleski-Jones, L. & Duncan, G.J., 2002. "Effects of participation in the WIC program on birthweight: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(5), pages 799-804.
    9. Evans, William N. & Lien, Diana S., 2005. "The benefits of prenatal care: evidence from the PAT bus strike," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 207-239.
    10. Kotelchuck, M., 1994. "An evaluation of the Kessner Adequacy of Prenatal Care Index and a proposed Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 84(9), pages 1414-1420.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jones, Jordan W. & Courtemanche, Charles & Marton, James, 2018. "The Impacts of the Food Stamp Program on Mortality," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 273845, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Thesia I. Garner & Charles Hokayem, 2012. "Supplemental Poverty Measure Thresholds: Imputing School Lunch and WIC Benefits to the Consumer Expenditure Survey Using the Current Population Survey," Working Papers 457, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    3. Di Fang & Michael R. Thomsen & Rodolfo M. Nayga & Aaron M. Novotny, 2019. "WIC Participation and Relative Quality of Household Food Purchases: Evidence from FoodAPS," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(1), pages 83-105, July.
    4. Jackson, Margot I. & Mayne, Patrick, 2016. "Child access to the nutritional safety net during and after the Great Recession: The case of WIC," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 197-207.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marianne P. Bitler & Janet Currie, 2004. "Medicaid at Birth, WIC Take Up, and Children's Outcomes," Working Papers 172, RAND Corporation.
    2. Manan Roy, 2012. "Identifying the Effect of WIC on Infant Health When Participation is Endogenous and Misreported," Departmental Working Papers 1202, Southern Methodist University, Department of Economics.
    3. M. Taha Kasim & Benjamin Ukert, 2021. "The impact of WIC participation on tobacco use and alcohol consumption," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(3), pages 608-625, July.
    4. Jackson, Margot I. & Mayne, Patrick, 2016. "Child access to the nutritional safety net during and after the Great Recession: The case of WIC," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 197-207.
    5. Li, Xuemei & Saitone, Tina L. & Sexton, Richard J., 2022. "Impacts of Electronic Benefit Transfer on the Women, Infants and Children Program: Evidence from Oklahoma," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 47(2), May.
    6. Cristina Yunzal-Butler & Theodore J. Joyce & Andrew D. Racine, 2009. "Maternal Smoking and the Timing of WIC Enrollment," NBER Working Papers 14728, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Gundersen, Craig, 2005. "A dynamic analysis of the well-being of WIC recipients and eligible non-recipients," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 99-114, January.
    8. repec:mpr:mprres:5688 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Jiang, Miao & Foster, E. Michael & Gibson-Davis, Christina M., 2010. "The effect of WIC on breastfeeding: A new look at an established relationship," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 264-273, February.
    10. Ted Joyce & Diane Gibson & Silvie Colman, 2004. "The Changing Association Between Prenatal Participation in WIC and Birth Outcomes in New York City," NBER Working Papers 10796, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Rossin-Slater, Maya, 2013. "WIC in your neighborhood: New evidence on the impacts of geographic access to clinics," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 51-69.
    12. R. Todd Jewell & Patricia Triunfo, 2006. "Bajo peso al nacer en Uruguay: implicaciones para las políticas de salud," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 1706, Department of Economics - dECON.
    13. Hope Corman & Dhaval Dave & Nancy E. Reichman, 2018. "Evolution of the Infant Health Production Function," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(1), pages 6-47, July.
    14. Swann Christopher A, 2010. "WIC Eligibility and Participation: The Roles of Changing Policies, Economic Conditions, and Demographics," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-37, March.
    15. Irma Arteaga & Colleen Heflin & Sarah Parsons, 2019. "Design Flaws: Consequences of the Coverage Gap in Food Programs for Children at Kindergarten Entry," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(2), pages 265-283, June.
    16. Petra Persson & Maya Rossin-Slater, 2018. "Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 1214-1252, April.
    17. Tim Bersak & Lyudmyla Sonchak‐Ardan, 2022. "Prenatal care: Mechanisms and impacts on infant health and health care utilization," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(1), pages 48-65, January.
    18. Yunwei Gai & Li Feng, 2012. "Effects of Federal Nutrition Program on Birth Outcomes," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 40(1), pages 61-83, March.
    19. Jackson, Margot I., 2015. "Early childhood WIC participation, cognitive development and academic achievement," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 145-153.
    20. Haeck, Catherine & Lefebvre, Pierre, 2016. "A simple recipe: The effect of a prenatal nutrition program on child health at birth," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 77-89.
    21. Nobles, Jenna & Hamoudi, Amar, 2019. "Detecting the Effects of Early-Life Exposures: Why Fecundity Matters," SocArXiv x4zm6, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:26:y:2008:i:4:p:518-538. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.