Exploring the Racial Gap in Infant Mortality Rates, 1920-1970

William J. Collins, Melissa A. Thomasson

NBER Working Paper No. 8836
Issued in March 2002
NBER Program(s):   CH   HE

This paper examines the racial gap in infant mortality rates from 1920 to 1970. Using state-level panel data with information on income, urbanization, women's education, and physicians per capita, we can account for a large portion of the racial gap in infant mortality rates between 1920 and 1945, but a smaller portion thereafter. We re-examine the post-war period in light of trends in birth weight, smoking, air pollution, breast-feeding, insurance, and hospital births.

(219 K)

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Published: Collins, William J. and Melissa A. Thomasson. "The Declining Contribution Of Socioeconomic Disparities To The Racial Gap In Infant Mortality Rates, 1920-1970," Southern Economic Journal, 2004, v70(4,Apr), 746-776.

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