Discharge on the day of birth, parental response and health and schooling outcomes

TY - JOUR

T1 - Discharge on the day of birth, parental response and health and schooling outcomes

AU - Sievertsen, Hans Henrik

AU - Wüst, Miriam

PY - 2017/9/1

Y1 - 2017/9/1

N2 - Exploiting the Danish roll-out of same-day discharge policies after uncomplicated births, we find that treated newborns have a higher probability of hospital readmission in the first month after birth. While these short-run effects may indicate substitution of hospital stays with readmissions, we also find that—in the longer run—a same-day discharge decreases children's 9th grade GPA. This effect is driven by children and mothers, who prior to the policy change would have been least likely to experience a same-day discharge. Using administrative and survey data to assess potential mechanisms, we show that a same-day discharge impacts those parents’ health investments and their children's medium-run health. Our findings point to important negative effects of policies that expand same-day discharge policies to broad populations of mothers and children.

AB - Exploiting the Danish roll-out of same-day discharge policies after uncomplicated births, we find that treated newborns have a higher probability of hospital readmission in the first month after birth. While these short-run effects may indicate substitution of hospital stays with readmissions, we also find that—in the longer run—a same-day discharge decreases children's 9th grade GPA. This effect is driven by children and mothers, who prior to the policy change would have been least likely to experience a same-day discharge. Using administrative and survey data to assess potential mechanisms, we show that a same-day discharge impacts those parents’ health investments and their children's medium-run health. Our findings point to important negative effects of policies that expand same-day discharge policies to broad populations of mothers and children.

KW - Early investments

KW - Long-run health

KW - Parental response

KW - Postpartum hospital stay

KW - Schooling outcomes

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85025167208&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.06.012

DO - 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.06.012

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 28743535

AN - SCOPUS:85025167208

SN - 0167-6296

VL - 55

SP - 121

EP - 138

JO - Journal of Health Economics

JF - Journal of Health Economics

ER -