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Early Life Health Interventions and Childhood Development: Evidence from Special Care Nursery Assignment in Australia’s Northern Territory

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  • Schnepel, Kevin T.
  • Schurer, Stefanie

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of improved early-life health care, through assignment to a special care nursery (SCN), on childhood development and school achievement. We use linked administrative data in the Northern Territory of Australia and exploit the fact that assignment to SCN is largely based on rules of thumb involving low birth weight thresholds. We find large positive effects of SCN assignment on development at age five and some persistent improvements in test scores. Our results suggest that costly early-life health interventions, that are shown to increase survival probabilities of children in the short run, can also substantially boost cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

Suggested Citation

  • Schnepel, Kevin T. & Schurer, Stefanie, 2017. "Early Life Health Interventions and Childhood Development: Evidence from Special Care Nursery Assignment in Australia’s Northern Territory," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168240, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168240
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Douglas Almond & Joseph J. Doyle & Amanda E. Kowalski & Heidi Williams, 2010. "Estimating Marginal Returns to Medical Care: Evidence from At-risk Newborns," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(2), pages 591-634.
    2. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2007. "From the Cradle to the Labor Market? The Effect of Birth Weight on Adult Outcomes," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(1), pages 409-439.
    3. N. Meltem Daysal & Marianne Simonsen & Mircea Trandafir & Sanni Breining, 2022. "Spillover Effects of Early-Life Medical Interventions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(1), pages 1-16, March.
    4. Greg J. Duncan & Katherine Magnuson, 2013. "Investing in Preschool Programs," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(2), pages 109-132, Spring.
    5. Almond, Douglas & Currie, Janet, 2011. "Human Capital Development before Age Five," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 15, pages 1315-1486, Elsevier.
    6. Alan I. Barreca & Melanie Guldi & Jason M. Lindo & Glen R. Waddell, 2011. "Saving Babies? Revisiting the effect of very low birth weight classification," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(4), pages 2117-2123.
    7. Kenneth Y. Chay & Jonathan Guryan & Bhashkar Mazumder, 2009. "Birth Cohort and the Black-White Achievement Gap: The Roles of Access and Health Soon After Birth," NBER Working Papers 15078, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    10. repec:ucn:wpaper:10197/317 is not listed on IDEAS
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Early-life health treatments; special care nurseries; school achievements; noncognitive skills; school readiness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

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