The effects of prenatal care and WIC participation on birth outcome production functions in New York City.
Item
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Title
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The effects of prenatal care and WIC participation on birth outcome production functions in New York City.
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Identifier
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AAI9521262
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identifier
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9521262
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Creator
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Devries, Patricia Lee.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Michael Grossman
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Date
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1995
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Economics, General
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Abstract
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Birthweight production functions for New York City are estimated by race/ethnicity for adult and adolescent mothers for the three year period of 1988 through 1990. In 1988 the New York City birth certificates began recording new items which include information about potential risk factors during pregnancy such as pre-pregnancy weight, pregnancy weight gain, use of substances such as drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes and employment status during pregnancy; the effects of these new inputs on the production functions are examined. Another purpose of this study is to examine the impact on the production function of participation in the WIC program. Different estimates of the production functions are shown with prenatal care and WIC participation being treated as exogenous and endogenous inputs to the production function. Equations for prenatal care demand and the probability of WIC participation are also estimated.;The main results of this study are that a delay in prenatal medical care causes a reduction in birthweight while prenatal WIC participation causes an increase in birthweight. When delay is treated endogenously the magnitude of the effect of delay is larger than when it is treated exogenously for birth outcomes of all adults. When WIC enrollment is treated endogenously, the magnitude of the effect of WIC is smaller than when it is treated exogenously for blacks, but is larger for whites and Hispanics.;For the birth outcomes of the adolescents, prenatal care delay has a negative significant effect on birthweight when treated exogenously. When delay is treated endogenously, the magnitude of this effect greatly increases for whites and Hispanics while it is no longer significant for blacks. WIC participation has a positive significant effect on the birth outcomes of black adolescent mothers when it is treated exogenously and endogenously; it has a positive significant effect on birthweight for Hispanic adolescents only when treated exogenously, and it does not have a significant effect on the birthweight for white adolescents when treated in either manner.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
