Volume 27, Number 4 (Fall) 1992
Frank, Richard G., Donna M. Strobino, David S. Salkever, and Catherine A. Jackson. 1992. "Updated Estimates of the Impact of Prenatal Care on Birthweight Outcomes by Race." Journal of Human Resources 27(4):629-642.
This paper estimates a quasi-structural birthweight production function using data on counties for the years 1975-84.The analysis focuses on the effects of first trimester initiation of prenatal care, controlling for use of abortion services, cigarette smoking, birth order, and income. A fixed-effects model is used to control for unmeasured differences in health endowments of women across counties. The results indicate that early first trimester initiation of prenatal care leads to a reduction in low birthweight for both blacks and whites. Differences in use of prenatal care by race explain only a small part of the black-white differences in the fraction of low birthweight births.
Richard G. Frank, Donna M. Strobino, and David S. Salkever are members of the public health faculty at Johns Hopkins University; Catherine A. Jackson is an economist at the RAND Corporation. This research received financial support from grant #MCJ-240545 from the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health. The authors are grateful to Michael Grossman for helpful discussion of the issues in this paper. Three anonymous referees made helpful suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning in March 1993 through March 1996 from the authors at the following address: Health Services Research and Development Center, 624 North Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205.
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