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Territorial differences in access to prenatal care and health at birth

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  • Bertoli, Paola
  • Grembi, Veronica

Abstract

We assess the impact of prenatal care on health at birth using birth certificates from the Czech Republic. We use a predictive machine learning algorithm to identify the observables affecting birth health outcomes. We control for those observables in our empirical analysis, which indicates that a more intense use of prenatal care is positively correlated with better health outcomes at birth. Exploiting the Czech adhesion to the EU in 2004, we construct an instrument to capture the geographical heterogeneous access to prenatal care across districts. Differently from the OLS results, the IV results do not capture any significant effect of prenatal care, leaving room for the hidden role of unobservable mothers’ characteristics when it comes to health behaviors during pregnancy.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertoli, Paola & Grembi, Veronica, 2021. "Territorial differences in access to prenatal care and health at birth," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(8), pages 1092-1099.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:125:y:2021:i:8:p:1092-1099
    DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2021.05.006
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Prenatal care; Health at birthsep instrumental variable;

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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