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  5. Place Effects and Geographic Inequality in Health at Birth

American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy

ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)

Place Effects and Geographic Inequality in Health at Birth

  • Eric Chyn
  • Na'ama Shenhav
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (Forthcoming)

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 early-health place effects.

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