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Health benefits of social insurance
Author(s) -
Noghanibehambari Hamid,
Salari Mahmoud
Publication year - 2020
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.4170
Subject(s) - birth weight , externality , unemployment , schedule , low birth weight , economics , demography , birth rate , health insurance , medicine , demographic economics , pregnancy , environmental health , population , economic growth , health care , sociology , biology , genetics , management , research methodology , microeconomics
This paper studies the potential positive externality of unemployment insurance (UI) on infant birth outcomes. Taking advantage of variations of UI benefits across states and over time, we find that UI improves birth outcomes, including mean birth weight, full‐term birth weight, low birth weight, fetal growth, and preterm birth. If all states apply the UI schedule of the most generous state (Massachusetts), the average birth weight increases by roughly 19 g.