TY  - JOUR
AU  - Collins,William J.
AU  - Thomasson,Melissa A.
TI  - Exploring the Racial Gap in Infant Mortality Rates, 1920-1970
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8836
PY  - 2002
Y2  - March 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8836
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8836.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
William J. Collins
Department of Economics
Vanderbilt University
VU Station B #351819
2301 Vanderbilt Place
Nashville, TN 37235-1819
Tel: 615/322-3428
Fax: NA
E-Mail: william.collins@vanderbilt.edu

Melissa A. Thomasson
Miami University/FSB
Department of Economics MSC 1035
800 E. High Street, Rm. #2054
Oxford, OH  45056
Tel: 513/529-2858
Fax: 513/529-8047
E-Mail: thomasma@muohio.edu
AB  - 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.
ER  -