RESUMEN

This paper studies the effect of improved early life health care on mortality and long-run academic achievement in school. We use the idea that medical treatments often follow rules of thumb for assigning care to patients, such as the classification of Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW ), which assigns infants special care at a specific birth weight cutoff. Using detailed administrative data on schooling and birth records from Chile and Norway, we establish that children who receive extra medical care at birth have lower mortality rates and higher test scores and grades in school. These gains are in the order of 0.15­0.22 standard deviations.

Asunto(s)

Éxito Académico , Salud del Lactante , Recién Nacido de muy Bajo Peso , Unidades de Cuidado Intensivo Neonatal , Cuidado Intensivo Neonatal , Tensoactivos/uso terapéutico , Peso al Nacer , Salud Infantil , Chile , Edad Gestacional , Humanos , Lactante , Cuidado del Lactante , Mortalidad Infantil , Recién Nacido , Cuidado Intensivo Neonatal/métodos , Noruega , Síndrome de Dificultad Respiratoria del Recién Nacido/tratamiento farmacológico