文章基本信息

标题：Long-Term Consequences of Access to Well-child Visits
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作者：Aline Bütikofer ; Katrine V. Løken ; Kjell G. Salvanes 等
期刊名称：Discussion Papers / Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration
印刷版ISSN：0804-6824
出版年度：2015
卷号：2015
出版社：Bergen
摘要：A growing literature documents the positive long-term eects of policy-induced improvementsin early-life health and nutrition. However, there is still scarce evidence on early-lifehealth programs targeting a large share of the population and the role of such programs inincreasing intergenerational mobility. This paper uses the rollout of mother and child healthcare centers in Norway, which commenced in the 1930s, to study the long-term consequences ofincreasing access to well-child visits. These well-child visits included a physical examination andthe provision of information about adequate infant nutrition. Our results indicate that accessto mother and child health care centers had a positive eect on education and earnings: accessin the rst year of life increased the completed years of schooling by 0.15 years and earnings bytwo percent. The eects were stronger for children from a low socioeconomic background. Inaddition, we nd that individuals suer from fewer health risks at age 40 and positive eects onadult height, which support the fact that better nutrition within the rst year of life is the likelymechanism behind our ndings. While there is increasing knowledge on the benets of varioustypes of early childhood programs, the costs are often neglected, making it hard to comparedierent programs. We add to this by showing that investments in mother and child health carecenters pass a simple cost{benet analysis