Increased WIC Eligibility and Birth Outcomes

This paper provides quasi-experimental evidence on the effect of WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, on birth outcomes focusing on adjunctive eligibility, which allows Medicaid expansions to create variation in WIC eligibility. The results show that a 1 percentage point increase in WIC eligibility is associated with increase in average birth weight by 0.392 grams, which corresponds to an estimated treatment on the treated effect of 17.7 grams. WIC also reduces the incidence of small for gestational age by 0.019 percentage points, which corresponds to a treatment on the treated effect of 8.7 percent. I find little evidence that there is a strong causal link between WIC and low birth weight or preterm birth rates, for which many pieces of literature find a positive causation, while my findings on Medicaid indicate that increased Medicaid eligibility statistically significantly reduces the incidence of very low birth weight, preterm birth, and very preterm birth.