TY - JOUR AU - Corman,Hope AU - Joyce,Theodore AU - Grossman,Michael TI - A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Strategies to Reduce Infant Mortality JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 2346 PY - 1988 Y2 - October 1988 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w2346 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w2346.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Hope Corman Rider University 2083 Lawrenceville Road Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 Tel: 609/895-5559 Fax: 609/896-5387 E-Mail: corman@rider.edu Theodore J. Joyce Baruch College & Graduate Center, CUNY 365 Fifth Ave, 5th Fl New York, NY 10016-4309 Tel: 212/817-7960 Fax: 212/817-1597 E-Mail: theodore.joyce@baruch.cuny.edu Michael Grossman Ph.D. Program in Economics City University of New York Graduate Center 365 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor New York, NY 10016-4309 Tel: 212/817-7959 Fax: 212/817-1597 E-Mail: mgrossman@gc.cuny.edu M2 - featured in NBER digest on 1987-12-01 AB - This study compares the cost-effectiveness of various health inputs and government programs in reducing race-specific neonatal mortality or death in the first twenty-seven days of life. Approximately two-thirds of all infant deaths occur within this time period. The programs and inputs at issue are teenage family planning use, the supplemental food program for women, infants and children (WIC), use of community health centers and maternal and infant care projects, abortion, prenatal care, and neonatal intensive care. Using an economic model of the family as the analytical framework, effectiveness is determined by using ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares to estimate infant health production functions across large counties in the U.S. in 1977. We find the early initiation of prenatal care to be the most cost-effective means of reducing neonatal mortality rate for blacks and whites. Moreover, blacks benefit more per dollar of input use than whites. Neonatal intensive care, although the most effective means of reducing neonatal mortality rates, is one of the least cost-effective strategies. ER -