The focus of this special issue is advances in the economics of children following the pioneering work of Janet Currie. This issue includes papers in the following four topic areas: determinants and consequences of maternal and infant health, the social safety net and child health and well-being, long-term and intergenerational effects of conditions in early life, and the determinants of mental health and mental health care.
--Anna Aizer, Marianne Bitler, Josh Goodman, Marianne Page, Maya Rossin-Slater, Emilia Simeonova, and David Slusky, Special Issue Editors
Table of Contents
Providers, Places, and Children’s Mental Health Care
Gabriel Swagel
Children’s mental health is the defining public health crisis of our time. Using the largest repository of private insurance claims in the United States, I provide the first systematic quantification of the variation in children’s mental health prescribing in the U.S. I separate variation due to 1) primary care provider (PCP) prescribing intensities, 2) regional practice environments, and 3) child health and demand. Equalizing PCP intensities would reduce the variance of provider prescribing rates by 50 percent for ADHD and 65 percent for antidepressants. Analyzing geographic variation alone significantly understates the extent of treatment variation and the role of providers.
The Labor Market and Health Impacts of Reducing Cesarean Section Deliveries
Sarah Miller, Petra Persson, Maya Rossin-Slater and Laura R. Wherry
We study an intervention that reduced cesarean deliveries among low-risk first-time mothers, using California birth records linked to earnings data. Exposed mothers were 8% less likely to have a c-section, with no adverse health effects. We find suggestive evidence that they were more likely to return to their pre-birth employer and had higher within-firm earnings rankings in the quarter postbirth. These labor market gains fade over time. However, mothers who had a second child were less likely to have a c-section or preterm delivery, suggesting our estimated effects from avoiding a first c-section may be lower bounds on total gains.
Affordable Housing During Childhood Improves Long-Term Outcomes of Women and Their Children
Janet Currie and Jessica Van Parys
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is the largest U.S. federal affordable housing program, yet its impacts on children are largely unknown. Using geocoded Florida Natality data and LIHTC addresses (1980–2024), we examine how childhood LIHTC exposure affects early-adulthood health among women born to mothers with a high school degree or less, and their infants. Matching tracts with and without LIHTC, we find a one standard deviation increase in exposure improves maternal health, infant health, and maternal SES indices by 0.015, 0.010, and 0.007 standard deviations. Effects are largest for Black women, who most often live in LIHTC units.