Aggregate Income Shocks and Infant Mortality in the Developing World

• Tác giả: Sarah Baird
• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 330.91 Treatment by areas, regions, places in general
• Thông tin xuất bản: MIT Press, 2012
• Bộ sưu tập: Tài liệu truy cập mở
• ID: 316542
• Chủ đề: 1. Child Care; 2. Family Planning; 3. Fertility; 4. Health Production I120; 5. Macroeconomics: Production E230

Tóm tắt

Health and income are strongly correlated both within and across countries, yet the extent to which improvements in income have a causal effect on health status remains controversial. We investigate whether short-term fluctuations in aggregate income affect infant mortality using an unusually large data set of 1.7 million births in 59 developing countries. We show a large, negative association between per capita GDP and infant mortality. Female infant mortality is more sensitive than male infant mortality to negative economic shocks, suggesting that policies that protect the health status of female infants may be especially important during economic downturns.