TY  - JOUR
AU  - Chen, Alice
AU  - Oster, Emily
AU  - Williams, Heidi
TI  - Why is Infant Mortality Higher in the US than in Europe?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 20525
PY  - 2014
Y2  - September 2014
DO  - 10.3386/w20525
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w20525
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w20525.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Alice Chen
Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics
University of Southern California
635 Downey Way
Los Angeles, CA 90089-3333
Tel: (213) 821-1763
E-Mail: alicejc@usc.edu

Emily Oster
Brown University
Department of Economics
64 Waterman Street
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401/863-2170
E-Mail: emily_oster@brown.edu

Heidi L. Williams
Department of Economics
Stanford University
579 Jane Stanford Way
Office 323
Stanford, CA 94305
Tel: (650) 723-9303
E-Mail: hlwill@stanford.edu
AB  - The US has higher infant mortality than peer countries. In this paper, we combine micro-data from the US with similar data from four European countries to investigate this US infant mortality disadvantage. The US disadvantage persists after adjusting for potential differential reporting of births near the threshold of viability. While the importance of birth weight varies across comparison countries, relative to all comparison countries the US has similar neonatal (<1 month) mortality but higher postneonatal (1-12 months) mortality. We document similar patterns across Census divisions within the US. The postneonatal mortality disadvantage is driven by poor birth outcomes among lower socioeconomic status individuals.
ER  -