Infant Health Care and Long-Term Outcomes

This paper studies the long-term and life cycle consequences of increasing access to mother and child health care centers in the first year of life. Access to these centers increased completed years of schooling by 0.15 years and earnings by 2%. These effects were stronger for children from a low socioeconomic background and contribute to a 10% reduction in the intergenerational persistence in educational attainment. Better nutrition within the first year of life is a likely mechanism. In particular, we find positive effects on adult height, fewer health risks at age 40, and decreased infant mortality from diarrhea.