Local Economic Growth and Infant Mortality
CESifo, Munich, 2021
CESifo Working Paper No. 9315
We show, for the first time, a causal effect of local economic growth on infant mortality. We use geo-referenced data for non-migrating mothers from 46 developing countries and 128 DHS survey rounds and combine it with nighttime luminosity data at a granular level. Using mother fixed effects we show that an increase in local economic activity significantly reduces the probability that the same mother loses a further child before its first birthday.
Public Finance
Fiscal Policy, Macroeconomics and Growth