Journal of Political Economy Vol. 128 No. 11 2020

Occupational Licensing and Maternal Health: Evidence from Early Midwifery Laws

D. Mark Anderson^1,2; Ryan Brown³; Kerwin Kofi Charles¹; Daniel I. Rees¹

¹ National Bureau of Economic Research · ² Montana State University · ³ University of Colorado Denver

Abstract

Exploiting variation across states and municipalities in the timing and details of midwifery laws introduced during the period 1900–1940 and using data assembled from various primary sources, we find that requiring midwives to be licensed reduced maternal mortality by 7%–8% and may have led to modest reductions in infant mortality. These estimates represent the strongest evidence to date that licensing restrictions can improve the health of consumers and are directly relevant to ongoing policy debates on the merits of licensing midwives.

DOI

10.1086/710555

Volume

128

Issue

11

Pages

4337-4383

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite

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