Occupational Licensing and Maternal Health: Evidence from Early Midwifery Laws

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Anderson, D. Mark; Brown, Ryan; Charles, Kerwin Kofi; Rees, Daniel I.
• 署名单位: Montclair State University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Denver; Yale University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/710555
• 发表日期: 2020
• 关键词: UNITED-STATES; public-health; mortality; IMPACT; restrictions; education; MIDWIVES; HISTORY; decline; malaria

摘要

Exploiting variation across states and municipalities in the timing and details of midwifery laws introduced during the period 1900-1940 and using data assembled from various primary sources, we find that requiring midwives to be licensed reduced maternal mortality by 7%-8% and may have led to modest reductions in infant mortality. These estimates represent the strongest evidence to date that licensing restrictions can improve the health of consumers and are directly relevant to ongoing policy debates on the merits of licensing midwives.