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Prenatal care and birthweight production: evidence from South America

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  • R. Todd Jewell

Abstract

Research using US data has shown that increases in prenatal care have positive effects on birthweight and that the existence of unobserved health heterogeneity tends to reduce the measured effect of prenatal care. This study extends extant research to the South American countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia and Peru using data from the demographic and health surveys, finding a positive effect of increased prenatal care use on birthweight. Furthermore, the largest marginal effect of increased prenatal care use is found at low levels of usage. The results highlight both the usefulness of existing methodologies for estimating the effect of prenatal care on birthweight and the importance of extending these methodologies to data from countries other than the USA.

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  • R. Todd Jewell, 2007. "Prenatal care and birthweight production: evidence from South America," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 415-426.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:39:y:2007:i:4:p:415-426
    DOI: 10.1080/00036840500439028
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    1. Habibov, Nazim N. & Fan, Lida, 2011. "Does prenatal healthcare improve child birthweight outcomes in Azerbaijan? Results of the national Demographic and Health Survey," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 56-65, January.
    2. 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.
    3. Edward N. Okeke & Amalavoyal V. Chari, 2015. "Can Institutional Deliveries Reduce Newborn Mortality? Evidence from Rwanda," Working Papers WR-1072, RAND Corporation.
    4. George L. Wehby & Jeffrey C. Murray & Eduardo E. Castilla & Jorge S. Lopez‐Camelo & Robert L. Ohsfeldt, 2009. "Quantile effects of prenatal care utilization on birth weight in Argentina," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(11), pages 1307-1321, November.
    5. Ryan Brown, 2018. "The Mexican Drug War and Early-Life Health: The Impact of Violent Crime on Birth Outcomes," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(1), pages 319-340, February.
    6. Laura Rodríguez, 2022. "Violence and newborn health: Estimates for Colombia," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 112-136, January.
    7. David Mmopelwa, 2019. "Prenatal care utilization and infant health in Botswana," Discussion Papers 2019-09, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    8. Habibov, Nazim & Cheung, Alex & Auchynnikava, Alena, 2017. "Does social trust increase willingness to pay taxes to improve public healthcare? Cross-sectional cross-country instrumental variable analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 25-34.
    9. Lautharte, Ildo, 2021. "Babies and Bandidos: Birth outcomes in pacified favelas of Rio de Janeiro," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    10. Delajara, Marcelo & Wendelspiess Chávez Juárez, Florian, 2013. "Birthweight outcomes in Bolivia: The role of maternal height, ethnicity, and behavior," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 56-68.
    11. Wehby George L. & McCarthy Ann Marie & Castilla Eduardo & Murray Jeffrey C., 2011. "The Impact of Household Investments on Early Child Neurodevelopment and on Racial and Socioeconomic Developmental Gaps: Evidence from South America," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 14(1), pages 1-60, December.

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