Cash transfers before pregnancy and infant health

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• dc.contributor.author González, Libertad
• dc.contributor.author Trommlerová, Sofia Karina
• dc.date.accessioned 2023-07-19T06:36:14Z
• dc.date.available 2023-07-19T06:36:14Z
• dc.date.issued 2022
• dc.description.abstract We estimate the impact of a cash transfer targeting new mothers on their subsequent children's health outcomes at birth. We exploit the unexpected introduction of a generous, universal child benefit in Spain in 2007. Using population-wide, individual-level, high-quality administrative data from birth records and a regression discontinuity approach, we find that women who received the benefit were much less likely to have low-birth-weight children in the future (while their subsequent fertility was unaffected). The overall effect is driven by poor women, unmarried women, and women with low education, and by births taking place relatively soon after the benefit receipt. The €2500 transfer led to a 0.7 percentage-point decline in the fraction of children born under 1500 g in poorer households in the following five years, an 83% reduction. We explore the underlying channels, and find evidence supporting faster intrauterine growth, possibly driven by better maternal health, nutrition, and behaviors. Gestation length, family structure, and parental employment do not seem to play a role. Recent research suggests that targeting pregnant women may be more effective than later interventions (such as cash transfers to families with children), given the strong persistence of fetal health effects. Our results suggest that the impact may be stronger if women are targeted even earlier, before conception.
• dc.description.sponsorship The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the Severo Ochoa Program for Centers of Excellence in R&D (CEX2019-000915-S). We also acknowledge funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 770958).
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation González L, Trommlerová S. Cash transfers before pregnancy and infant health. J Health Econ. 2022;83:102622. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102622
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102622
• dc.identifier.issn 0167-6296
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/57613
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher Elsevier
• dc.relation.ispartof Journal of Health Economics. 2022;83:102622.
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/770958
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/2PE/CEX2019-000915-S
• dc.rights © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• dc.subject.keyword Birth weight
• dc.subject.keyword Cash transfer
• dc.subject.keyword Fetal health
• dc.subject.keyword Prenatal period
• dc.subject.keyword Child benefit
• dc.title Cash transfers before pregnancy and infant health
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion