Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States than in Europe?
The United States has higher infant mortality than peer countries. In this paper, we combine microdata from the United States with similar data from four European countries to investigate this US infant mortality disadvantage. The US disadvantage persists after adjusting for potential differential r...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Economic Association
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110215 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4364-1505 |
| _version_ | 1811095364318527488 |
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| author | Chen, Alice Oster, Emily Williams, Heidi L |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Chen, Alice Oster, Emily Williams, Heidi L |
| author_sort | Chen, Alice |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The United States has higher infant mortality than peer countries. In this paper, we combine microdata from the United States with similar data from four European countries to investigate this US infant mortality disadvantage. The US disadvantage persists after adjusting for potential differential reporting of births near the threshold of viability. While the importance of birth weight varies across comparison countries, relative to all comparison countries the United States has similar neonatal (<1 month) mortality but higher postneonatal (1–12 months) mortality. We document similar patterns across census divisions within the United States. The postneonatal mortality disadvantage is driven by poor birth outcomes among lower socioeconomic status individuals. (JEL I12, I14, I32, J14) |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:15:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/110215 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:15:55Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | American Economic Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1102152022-09-29T19:15:32Z Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States than in Europe? Chen, Alice Oster, Emily Williams, Heidi L Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Williams, Heidi L The United States has higher infant mortality than peer countries. In this paper, we combine microdata from the United States with similar data from four European countries to investigate this US infant mortality disadvantage. The US disadvantage persists after adjusting for potential differential reporting of births near the threshold of viability. While the importance of birth weight varies across comparison countries, relative to all comparison countries the United States has similar neonatal (<1 month) mortality but higher postneonatal (1–12 months) mortality. We document similar patterns across census divisions within the United States. The postneonatal mortality disadvantage is driven by poor birth outcomes among lower socioeconomic status individuals. (JEL I12, I14, I32, J14) National Institute on Aging (Grant Number T32-AG000186) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant Number 1151497) 2017-06-23T16:36:22Z 2017-06-23T16:36:22Z 2016-05 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1945-7731 1945-774X http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110215 Chen, Alice, Emily Oster, and Heidi Williams. “Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States Than in Europe?†.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 8, no. 2 (May 2016): 89–124. © 2017 American Economic Association https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4364-1505 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/pol.20140224 American Economic Journal: Economic Policy Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Economic Association American Economic Association |
| spellingShingle | Chen, Alice Oster, Emily Williams, Heidi L Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States than in Europe? |
| title | Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States than in Europe? |
| title_full | Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States than in Europe? |
| title_fullStr | Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States than in Europe? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States than in Europe? |
| title_short | Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States than in Europe? |
| title_sort | why is infant mortality higher in the united states than in europe |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110215 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4364-1505 |
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