Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States than in Europe?
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Williams_Why is infant.pdf
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Author(s)
Chen, Alice
Oster, Emily
Williams, Heidi L
Date Issued
May 2016
Journal
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
Publisher
American Economic Association
Citation
Chen, Alice, Emily Oster, and Heidi Williams. “Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States Than in Europe?†.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 8, no. 2 (May 2016): 89–124. © 2017 American Economic Association
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The United States has higher infant mortality than peer countries. In this paper, we combine microdata from the United States with similar data from four European countries to investigate this US infant mortality disadvantage. The US disadvantage persists after adjusting for potential differential reporting of births near the threshold of viability. While the importance of birth weight varies across comparison countries, relative to all comparison countries the United States has similar neonatal (<1 month) mortality but higher postneonatal (1–12 months) mortality. We document similar patterns across census divisions within the United States. The postneonatal mortality disadvantage is driven by poor birth outcomes among lower socioeconomic status individuals. (JEL I12, I14, I32, J14)
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20140224
