Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
June 1, 2016
Summary:
This paper investigates the potential of an infant intervention to improve life expectancy, contributing to emerging interest in the early life origins of chronic disease. We track individuals from birth to death, and are able to identify age and cause of death. The intervention was pioneered in Sweden in 1931– 1933, and appears to have been pivotal in the emergence of universal infant care programmes in the Scandinavian countries during the creation of the Welfare State. It provided information and support to mothers, with an emphasis on nutrition and sanitation, while monitoring infant care through home visits and clinics. We estimate that the average duration of programme exposure in infancy led to a 1.56% point decline in the risk of infant death (24% of baseline risk) and a 2.56% point decline in the risk of dying by age 75 (7.0% of baseline risk). We directly identify intervention-led declines in the risk of dying after the age of 50, dominated by reductions in cancer and cardiovascular mortality. We find no evidence of selective utilisation, and the estimates are similar when we exploit within-mother variation in outcomes. Intervention impacts are larger for children born out of wedlock. Our findings are of contemporary relevance for richer and poorer countries.
Published in
Journal of the European Economic Association
ISSN
15424766
Subjects
Link
- http://repository.essex.ac.uk/17556/
Notes
Submitted
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