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The Quantile effects of prenatal care on birth weight in Mexico

Author

Listed:
  • Santosh Kumar

    (Department of Economics & International Business, Sam Houston State University)

  • Fidel Gonzalez

    (Department of Economics & International Business, Sam Houston State University)

Abstract

Prenatal care has long been identified as an effective strategy to reduce the risk of low birth weight among infants; however, most studies ignore endogeneity and distributional effect of prenatal care on birth weight. Using instrumental variable quantile regression method, we estimate the effect of prenatal care on birth weight at different quantiles of the birth weight distribution. We find that the effect of a prenatal visit on birth weight is heterogeneous across birth weight quantiles. Infants at the lower birthweight quantiles benefit more from prenatal care compared with infants at the higher birthweight quantiles. The marginal effect of prenatal care visit is 52 grams at the 10th quantiles versus 34 grams at the 90th quantiles. Targeted policies aimed at improving access to prenatal care for women at higher risk of giving birth to low birth infants may help improve the birth endowment of infants.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-20-00024
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Santosh Kumar & Kaushalendra Kumar & Ramanan Laxminarayan & Arindam Nandi, 2022. "Birth Weight and Cognitive Development during Childhood: Evidence from India," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 41(2), pages 155-175, June.
    2. R. Todd Jewell & Patricia Triunfo, 2006. "The impact of prenatal care on birthweight: the case of Uruguay," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(11), pages 1245-1250, November.
    3. 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.
    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. Fidel Gonzalez & Santosh Kumar, 2018. "Prenatal care and birthweight in Mexico," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(10), pages 1156-1170, February.
    6. Kim, Albert Young-Il & Lee, Jungmin, 2017. "Does Single Motherhood Hurt Infant Health among Young Mothers?," IZA Discussion Papers 10592, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Santosh Kumar & Fidel Gonzalez, 2018. "Effects of health insurance on birth weight in Mexico," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(8), pages 1149-1159, August.
    8. R. Todd Jewell, 2007. "Prenatal care and birthweight production: evidence from South America," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 415-426.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Prenatal care; Birth weight; Mexico; Quantile Regression;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

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