出生健康的地点效应与地理不平等
Place Effects and Geographic Inequality in Health at Birth
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy · 2025 · [{"name": "Eric Chyn", "affiliation": ["The University of Texas at Austin"]}, {"name": "Na’ama Shenhav", "affiliation": ["Goldman Sachs (United States)"]}]
中文摘要
本文利用出生记录以及发生迁移的母亲，量化出生地点对生命早期健康的绝对与相对重要性。基于一个纳入母亲固定效应与地点固定效应的模型，我们发现，从出生体重低于中位数的地点迁移至高于中位数的地点，会带来儿童出生体重的重要改善，其量级可与针对孕产妇健康的政策相当。地点效应在长距离迁移中更大，且对非大学学历母亲的子女影响更强。我们发现，污染是地点效应对婴儿健康影响的最强预测因子。（JEL I12, I14, J13, J16, Q51, Q53）
Abstract
This paper uses birth records and mothers who move to quantify the absolute and relative importance of birth location for early-life health. Using a model that includes mother and location fixed effects, we find that moving from a below- to an above-median-birth-weight location leads to important improvements in child birth weight, with comparable magnitudes to policies targeting maternal health. Place effects are larger for longer-distance moves and more influential for children of non-college-educated mothers. We find that pollution is the strongest predictor of place effects on infant health. (JEL I12, I14, J13, J16, Q51, Q53)