Spillover Effects of Early-Life Medical Interventions

N. Meltem Daysal; Marianne Simonsen; Mircea Trandafir; Sanni Breining

doi:10.1162/rest_a_00982

Spillover Effects of Early-Life Medical Interventions

N. Meltem Daysal¹; Marianne Simonsen²; Mircea Trandafir³; Sanni Breining⁴

¹ University of Copenhagen, CEBI, and IZA · ² Aarhus University and IZA · ³ University of Southern Denmark and IZA · ⁴ Ramboll Management Consulting

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2022 open access

Abstract We investigate the effects of early-life medical treatments on the treated children and their families. We use a regression discontinuity design that exploits changes in medical treatments across the very low birth weight (VLBW) cutoff. Using administrative data from Denmark, we establish that VLBW children have better health and higher test scores. We find that these benefits spill over to other family members: mothers enjoy better mental health, and siblings have higher test scores. Maternal mental health improvements seem to be driven by better focal child health and sibling spillovers by improved interactions within the family and parental compensating behavior.

DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00982
Volume: 104 (1)
Pages: 1-16
Language: en
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