Data and Code for: Place Effects and Geographic Inequality in Health at Birth

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Eric Chyn, University of Texas-Austin; Na'ama Shenhav, University of California-Berkeley

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
code			12/02/2024 01:41:PM
input_data			12/02/2024 01:38:PM
output			12/02/2024 01:42:PM
saved_data			12/02/2024 01:37:PM
README.pdf	application/pdf	236.5 KB	03/26/2025 03:19:PM

Project Citation:

Chyn, Eric, and Shenhav, Na’ama. Data and Code for: Place Effects and Geographic Inequality in Health at Birth. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2025. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-10-03. https://doi.org/10.3886/E212343V1

Project Description

Summary: This paper uses birth records and mothers who move to quantify the absolute and relative importance of birth location for early-life health. Using a model that includes mother and location fixed effects, we find that moving from a below- to an above-median birth-weight location leads to important improvements in child birth weight, with comparable magnitudes to policies targeting maternal health. Place effects are larger for longer-distance moves and more influential for children of non-college-educated mothers. We find that pollution is the strongest predictor of early-health place effects.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: health; birth weight; children; neighborhood effects; pollution

JEL Classification:
      H51 National Government Expenditures and Health
      I10 Health: General
      I14 Health and Inequality
      J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
      Q53 Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
      R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics

Geographic Coverage: California

Time Period(s): 1989 – 2017

Universe: Infants born in California

Data Type(s): administrative records data; survey data

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Published Versions

V1 [2025-10-03]

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Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

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