Volume 29, Number 3 (Summer) 1994
Joyce, Theodore. 1994. "Self-Selection, Prenatal Care, and Birthweight Among Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics in New York City." Journal of Human Resources 29(3):762-794.
The paper tests whether the impact of parental care on birthweight is contaminated by selection bias, and if so, whether adverse or favorable selection dominates. A two-stage selectivity correction model with an ordered criterion function is applied to race- and ethnic-specific data from 1984 New York City birth certificates. We find that ordinary least squares underestimates the effects of prenatal care on birthweight by at least 80percent for whites and Hispanics. The results point to adverse selection in the demand for prenatal care.
Theodore Joyce is a professor of economics at Baruch College, City University of New York and an economist at the National Bureau of Economic Research. The research was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Grant 1 R01 Hd24154 to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The author acknowledges comments from two anonymous referees that led to major improvements. He wants to thank Michael Grossman and Robert Kaestner for their general comments and is especially indebted to William Greene for assistance with the econometrics. Geoffrey Joyce and Ahmet Kocagil provided research assistance. The author takes responsibility for all errors. An earlier version of the paper was presented at the Seventh Annual Meeting for the Association of Health Services Research and the Foundation for Health Services Research, June 17-19, 1990, in Arlington, Virginia. This study has not undergone the review accorded official NBER publications; any opinions expressed are the author's and not those of the NBER or NICHD. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning in February 1995 through February 1998 from the author at: National Bureau of Economic Research, 269 Mercer Street, 8th Floor, New York, New York 10003.
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