American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy
ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)
The Health Impacts of Hospital Delivery Practices
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
vol. 15,
no. 2, May 2023
(pp. 42–81)
Abstract
Treatment practices vary widely across hospitals, often with little connection to patients' medical needs. We assess impacts of these differences in delivery practices at childbirth. We find that infants quasi-randomly delivered at hospitals with higher C-section rates are born in better shape and are less likely to be readmitted, with suggestive evidence of improved survival. These benefits are driven by avoidance of prolonged labors that pose risks to infant health. In contrast, these infants are more likely to visit the emergency department for respiratory-related problems, consistent with a large observational literature linking C-section to chronic reductions in respiratory health.Citation
Card, David, Alessandra Fenizia, and David Silver. 2023. "The Health Impacts of Hospital Delivery Practices." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 15 (2): 42–81. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20210034Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I11 Analysis of Health Care Markets
- I12 Health Behavior
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
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