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Maternal education and childhood immunization in Turkey
Author(s) -
Özer Mustafa,
Fidrmuc Jan,
Eryurt Mehmet Ali
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.3770
Subject(s) - immunization , medicine , pediatrics , political science , immunology , antibody
We study the causal effect of maternal education on childhood immunization rates. We use the Compulsory Education Law of 1997, and the differentiation in its implementation across regions, as instruments for schooling of young mothers in Turkey. The Compulsory Education Law increased the compulsory years of schooling of those born after 1986 from 5 to 8 years. We find that education of mothers increases the probability of completing the full course of diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus and Hepatitis B vaccinations for their children. The results are robust to variations in regression specification and including various individual and community variables.