IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jopoec/v38y2025i1d10.1007_s00148-025-01063-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hospital supply and infant mortality: Evidence from Islamic political representation in Turkey

Author

Listed:
  • Bilge Erten

    (Northeastern University)

  • Yunus Cem Yılmaz

    (Analysis Group)

Abstract

We investigate the impact of healthcare facility supply on infant mortality by exploiting a change in local governments in Turkey as a quasi-exogenous shock to local hospital supply. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find a significant decline in infant mortality in municipalities where an Islamic mayor was barely elected. Exploring potential channels, we document a significant increase in the number and size of hospitals and health clinics in treated municipalities. Moreover, children in these municipalities are more likely to be born in government facilities, receive treatment for cough and fever, benefit from a greater number of childhood vaccinations, and have more prenatal care visits before birth. Our findings highlight that investments in public healthcare facilities in disadvantaged areas can have substantial effects on the survival of infants.

Suggested Citation

  • Bilge Erten & Yunus Cem Yılmaz, 2025. "Hospital supply and infant mortality: Evidence from Islamic political representation in Turkey," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(1), pages 1-26, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:38:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s00148-025-01063-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-025-01063-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00148-025-01063-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00148-025-01063-w?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bladimir Carrillo & Jose Feres, 2019. "Provider Supply, Utilization, and Infant Health: Evidence from a Physician Distribution Policy," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 156-196, August.
    2. Jonathan Gruber & Nathaniel Hendren & Robert M. Townsend, 2014. "The Great Equalizer: Health Care Access and Infant Mortality in Thailand," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 91-107, January.
    3. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocio Titiunik, 2014. "Robust Nonparametric Confidence Intervals for Regression‐Discontinuity Designs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82, pages 2295-2326, November.
    4. Sonia Bhalotra & Irma Clots-Figueras, 2014. "Health and the Political Agency of Women," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 164-197, May.
    5. Akinlo, Anthony E. & Sulola, Abiola O., 2019. "Health care expenditure and infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 168-178.
    6. Imbens, Guido W. & Lemieux, Thomas, 2008. "Regression discontinuity designs: A guide to practice," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 615-635, February.
    7. Andrew Gelman & Guido Imbens, 2019. "Why High-Order Polynomials Should Not Be Used in Regression Discontinuity Designs," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 447-456, July.
    8. Aline Bütikofer & Katrine V. Løken & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2019. "Infant Health Care and Long-Term Outcomes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(2), pages 341-354, May.
    9. Andrew Goodman-Bacon, 2018. "Public Insurance and Mortality: Evidence from Medicaid Implementation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(1), pages 216-262.
    10. Currie, Janet & Gruber, Jonathan, 1996. "Saving Babies: The Efficacy and Cost of Recent Changes in the Medicaid Eligibility of Pregnant Women," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(6), pages 1263-1296, December.
    11. Filmer, Deon & Pritchett, Lant, 1999. "The impact of public spending on health: does money matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 49(10), pages 1309-1323, November.
    12. Traczynski, Jeffrey & Udalova, Victoria, 2018. "Nurse practitioner independence, health care utilization, and health outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 90-109.
    13. Romero Rocha & Rodrigo R. Soares, 2010. "Evaluating the impact of community‐based health interventions: evidence from Brazil's Family Health Program," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(S1), pages 126-158, September.
    14. Stefanie Fischer & Heather Royer & Corey White, 2022. "Health Care Centralization: The Health Impacts of Obstetric Unit Closures in the US," Monash Economics Working Papers 2022-06, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    15. Guido Imbens & Karthik Kalyanaraman, 2012. "Optimal Bandwidth Choice for the Regression Discontinuity Estimator," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(3), pages 933-959.
    16. Louis-Philippe Beland Jr., 2015. "Political Parties and Labor-Market Outcomes: Evidence from US States," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 198-220, October.
    17. Rebecca L. Thornton & Laurel E. Hatt & Erica M. Field & Mursaleena Islam & Freddy Solís Diaz & Martha Azucena González, 2010. "Social security health insurance for the informal sector in Nicaragua: a randomized evaluation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(S1), pages 181-206, September.
    18. Grytten, Jostein & Sorensen, Rune, 2001. "Type of contract and supplier-induced demand for primary physicians in Norway," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 379-393, May.
    19. Erik Meyersson, 2014. "Islamic Rule and the Empowerment of the Poor and Pious," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(1), pages 229-269, January.
    20. Fatih Santas & Yusuf Celik & Mehmet Ali Eryurt, 2018. "Do health care reforms in Turkey have a significant effect in equal access to maternal and child health services in Turkey: An evidence from 20 years," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 344-356, January.
    21. Marwa Farag & A. Nandakumar & Stanley Wallack & Dominic Hodgkin & Gary Gaumer & Can Erbil, 2013. "Health expenditures, health outcomes and the role of good governance," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 33-52, March.
    22. McCrary, Justin, 2008. "Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design: A density test," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 698-714, February.
    23. Letícia Xander Russo & Anthony Scott & Peter Sivey & Joilson Dias, 2019. "Primary care physicians and infant mortality: Evidence from Brazil," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-16, May.
    24. McGuire, James W., 2006. "Basic health care provision and under-5 mortality: A Cross-National study of developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 405-425, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Prakash, Nishith & Rockmore, Marc & Uppal, Yogesh, 2019. "Do criminally accused politicians affect economic outcomes? Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    2. Egidio Farina, 2018. "The impact of political and religious leaders on socio-economic outcomes," Economics PhD Theses 0218, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    3. Thushyanthan Baskaran & Sonia Bhalotra & Brian Min & Yogesh Uppal, 2024. "Women legislators and economic performance," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 151-214, June.
    4. Jain, Chandan & Kashyap, Shagun & Lahoti, Rahul & Sahoo, Soham, 2022. "Do Educated Leaders Affect Economic Development? Evidence from India," IZA Discussion Papers 15278, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Mauricio Villamizar‐Villegas & Freddy A. Pinzon‐Puerto & Maria Alejandra Ruiz‐Sanchez, 2022. "A comprehensive history of regression discontinuity designs: An empirical survey of the last 60 years," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 1130-1178, September.
    6. Jain, Chandan & Kashyap, Shagun & Lahoti, Rahul & Sahoo, Soham, 2023. "The impact of educated leaders on economic development: Evidence from India," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 1068-1093.
    7. Koichiro Ito & Shuang Zhang, 2020. "Willingness to Pay for Clean Air: Evidence from Air Purifier Markets in China," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(5), pages 1627-1672.
    8. Adam C. Sales & Ben B. Hansen, 2020. "Limitless Regression Discontinuity," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 45(2), pages 143-174, April.
    9. Carozzi, Felipe & Repetto, Luca, 2019. "Distributive politics inside the city? The political economy of Spain's Plan E," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 85-106.
    10. Wang, Yadong & Wang, Delu & Shi, Xunpeng, 2022. "Exploring the multidimensional effects of China's coal de-capacity policy: A regression discontinuity design," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    11. Christina Korting & Carl Lieberman & Jordan Matsudaira & Zhuan Pei & Yi Shen, 2023. "Visual Inference and Graphical Representation in Regression Discontinuity Designs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(3), pages 1977-2019.
    12. Marinho Bertanha & Guido W. Imbens, 2020. "External Validity in Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Designs," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 593-612, July.
    13. Lippmann, Quentin, 2022. "Gender and lawmaking in times of quotas," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    14. Salim Atay & Gunes A. Asik & Semih Tumen, 2024. "Impact of Graduating with Honours on Entry Wages of Economics Majors," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 86(3), pages 606-640, June.
    15. Sanz, Carlos, 2020. "Direct democracy and government size: evidence from Spain," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(4), pages 630-645, October.
    16. Wang, Yanbo & Li, Jizhen & Furman, Jeffrey L., 2017. "Firm performance and state innovation funding: Evidence from China’s innofund program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1142-1161.
    17. MacPherson, Claire & Sterck, Olivier, 2021. "Empowering refugees through cash and agriculture: A regression discontinuity design," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    18. Higuchi, Yuki & Nakamuro, Makiko & Roever, Carsten & Sasaki, Miyuki & Yashima, Tomoko, 2023. "Impact of studying abroad on language skill development: Regression discontinuity evidence from Japanese university students," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    19. Francisco Pino, 2014. "Is There Gender Bias Among Voters ?Evidence from the Chilean Congressional Elections," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2014-53, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    20. Quaresima Federico & Santolini Raffaella & Fiorillo Fabio, 2020. "Political affiliation in post-parliamentary careers in Italian public enterprises," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 21(1), pages 35-64, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health infrastructure; Hospitals; Infant mortality; Close elections; Turkey;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

    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:spr:jopoec:v:38:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s00148-025-01063-w. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.