Full Citation
Title: Essays in Labor and Health
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2025
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI:
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: In “The Effect of Women’s Access to Free Health Care on Breastfeeding Practices: Evidence from Armenia,” I examine the impacts of women’s increased access to health care on breastfeeding outcomes. More specifically, I analyze how the “For You, Women” program in Armenia, which extended free health care to women for one month each year, affected two main breastfeeding outcomes, namely: the duration of breasting and the likelihood of ever breastfeeding. Using the timing of the program’s implementation and the geographic variation in where services were located, I employ a difference-in-differences specification to identify a causal impact of the program on breastfeeding. I find that there is a roughly 5% decrease in the likelihood of ever breastfeeding associated with the increased access to health care. I find no impact of the program on the duration of breastfeeding for those who choose to breastfeed. These findings are robust to a placebo check and are unlikely to be driven by changes in female employment. Even with Armenia’s strong son-preference, I find no strong evidence of a differential impact for male versus female children though this may be due to a lack of precision among the disaggregated estimates. One mechanism that is likely contributing to this decrease is the documented lack of supportive practices for breastfeeding in the region’s medical centers, which I verify using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Kopriva, Mary
Institution: University of Oregon
Department: Economics
Advisor:
Degree:
Publisher Location:
Pages: 1-102
Data Collections: IPUMS USA - Ancestry Full Count Data
Topics: Gender, Health, Reproductive and Sexual Health
Countries: