What is driving the black-white difference in low birthweight in the US?
What is driving the black-white difference in low birthweight in the US?
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DOI：
10.1002/hec.1715
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发表时间：
2012-03-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
Long, Sharon
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lhila, Aparna;Long, Sharon
这是第一次尝试量化不同因素在解释低出生体重率（LBW）种族差异中的贡献。母亲的健康，儿童的特点，产前护理，社会经济地位（SES），社会经济和医疗环境的母亲的社区是重要的投入到出生体重生产函数，和大量的文献已经深入到获得因果关系估计其对婴儿健康的影响。目前尚不清楚的是，LBW中的种族差距在多大程度上是由所有这些输入共同解释的。我们应用非线性扩展的OaxacaBlinder方法提出的费尔利分解这个差距的部分解释的差异观察到的特性和部分仍然无法解释。虽然主要的数据来源是出生细节文件，但数据是从几个来源获得的，以便捕获尽可能多的可观察数据。结果表明，在LBW的6.8个百分点的种族差距中，只有0.91.9个百分点是由这些措施中的禀赋差异解释的，而在这些禀赋中，LBW的大部分差距是由SES的差异解释的。这种无法解释的差异是由于在婴儿健康投资的回报或边际产品方面的种族差异。版权所有（C）2011约翰威利父子有限公司
This is a first effort to quantify the contribution of different factors in explaining racial difference in low birthweight rate (LBW). Mother's health, child characteristics, prenatal care, socioeconomic status (SES), and the socioeconomic and healthcare environment of mother's community are important inputs into the birthweight production function, and a vast literature has delved into obtaining causal estimates of their effect on infant health. What is unknown is how much of the racial gap in LBW is explained by all these inputs together. We apply a nonlinear extension of the OaxacaBlinder method proposed by Fairlie to decompose this gap into the portion explained by differences in observed characteristics and the portion that remains unexplained. Data are obtained from several sources in order to capture as many observables as possible, although the primary data source is the Natality Detail Files. Results show that of the 6.8 percentage point racial gap in LBW, only 0.91.9 points are explained by whiteblack differences in endowments across those measures, and of those endowments, most of the gap in LBW is explained by the differences in SES. The unexplained difference is attributed to racial differences in the returns to or the marginal product of investments in infant health. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.