소득효과와 신생아 건강, 석탄 호황을 이용하여

Abstract

This study estimates the effects of income shock on health. We analyze infant birth weight and mortality in Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia during the 1970s using the sharp coal price increase as an exogeneous income shock. This variation has been used in several previous papers. Individual level natality data are used for the birth weight analysis and county level per capita income is instrumented with the value of coal reserves in the county. An exogenous $1,000 increase in income in 2015 dollars increased birth weight by 5.5 grams but it is not statistically significant. The numbers of low birth weight babies decreased by 0.1%p with an exogenous $1,000 increase in income but again statistically insignificant and 1.3% of the sample mean (7.6%). Since we examine miners mostly, our results might have limited generalizability to general population.