Title

Typically Unobserved Variables (TUVs) and Selection into Prenatal Inputs: Implications for Estimating Infant Health Production Functions

Author(s)

Nancy E. Reichman Nancy Reichman (Robert Wood Johnson Medical School University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey)

Hope Corman Hope Corman (Rider University and NBER)

Kelly Noonan Kelly Noonan (Rider University and NBER)

Dhaval Dave Dhaval Dave (Bentley College and NBER)

Abstract

We use survey data, augmented with data collected from respondents? medical records, to explore selection into prenatal inputs among a group of urban, mostly unmarried mothers. We explore the extent to which several theoretically important but typically unobserved variables (representing wantedness, taste for risky behavior, and maternal health endowment) are likely to bias the estimated effects of prenatal inputs (illicit drug use, cigarette smoking, and prenatal care) on infant health outcomes (birth weight, low birth weight, and abnormal conditions). We also explore the consequences of including other non-standard covariates and of using selfreported inputs versus measures of inputs that incorporate information from medical records. We find that although the typically unobserved variables have strong associations with both inputs and outcomes with high explanatory power, excluding them from infant health production functions does not substantially bias the estimated effects of prenatal inputs. The bias from using self-reported measures of the inputs is much more substantial. The results suggest promising new directions for research on the production of infant health.

Creation Date

2006-01

Section URL ID

CMD

Paper Number

WP06-05.pdf

URL

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.532.2006&rep=rep1&type=pdf

File Function

Jel

I10

Keyword(s)

Suppress

false

Series

7