TY  - JOUR
AU  - Currie,Janet
AU  - Cole,Nancy
TI  - Does Participation in Transfer Programs During Pregnancy Improve Birth Weight?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3832
PY  - 1991
Y2  - September 1991
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3832
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3832.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Janet Currie
Princeton University
316 Wallace Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609-258-7393
Fax: 609-258-5974
E-Mail: jcurrie@princeton.edu

Nancy Cole
E-Mail: NCole@mathematica-mpr.com
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 1992-06-01
AB  - A primary goal of transfer programs to the non-aged, non-disabled poor in the United States is to improve the well-being of children in poor families. Thus it is surprising that most of the considerable research which has been devoted to the study of transfer programs focuses on the incentive effects of the programs for parents rather than on the question of whether parental participation in such programs measurably benefits children. This paper begins to fill this gap in the literature by examining the relationship between a mother's participation during pregnancy in Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the Food Stamp Program, or housing assistance, and one of the least controversial measures of child welfare: the birth weight. We do not find any statistically significant relationship between a mother's participation in these programs during pregnancy and the birth weight of her child. However, it should be kept in mind that birth weight is only one measure of child welfare and that these entitlement programs may well have positive impacts on the health and development of children once they are born.
ER  -