REVISIT THE EFFECT OF THE PRENATAL MEDICAL CARE USE ON THE BIRTH OUTCOME OF NEWBORN BABY

Abstract

The ambiguity of the effect of prenatal medical care on the health status of newborns may originate from the fact that individual decision-making of purchasing care is not fully considered, and this in turn may cause an endogeneity issue in the estimation process. This paper aims to empirically examine the effect of prenatal medical care by controlling the endogeneity issue in estimation process. We employed the Two Step Least Square method using appropriate instrumental variables. The estimation results suggest prenatal medical care use has a positive effect on birth outcomes. Additionally, the results were strengthened by performing a robustness test