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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Effect Of Public Health Expenditure On Infant Mortality: Evidence From A Panel Of Indian States, 1983-84 To 2011-12, Andrew J. Barenberg, Deepankar Basu, Ceren Soylu Dec 2015

The Effect Of Public Health Expenditure On Infant Mortality: Evidence From A Panel Of Indian States, 1983-84 To 2011-12, Andrew J. Barenberg, Deepankar Basu, Ceren Soylu

PERI Working Papers

Using a panel data set of Indian states between 1983–84 and 2011–12, this paper studies the impact of public health expenditure on the infant mortality rate (IMR), after controlling for other relevant covariates like per capita income, female literacy, and urbanization. We find that public expenditure on health care reduces IMR. Our baseline specification shows that an increase in public health expenditure by 1 percent of state-level GDP is associated with a reduction in the IMR by about 8 infant deaths per 1000 live births. We also find that female literacy and urbanization reduces the IMR.


Social Hierarchies And Public Distribution Of Food In Rural India, Deepankar Basu, Debarshi Das Sep 2015

Social Hierarchies And Public Distribution Of Food In Rural India, Deepankar Basu, Debarshi Das

Deepankar Basu

In this paper, we develop a simple model that shows that consumption of PDS food grains is significantly different between rich and poor households in states where the PDS functions relatively well; in places where the PDS is non-functional, the difference is not significant. Using household-level data from three recent thick rounds of the consumption expenditure survey (2004-2005, 2009-2010 and 2011-2012), we find evidence in support of the predictions from the model. This suggests that one way to make the PDS functional is to make it more accessible to poor and underprivileged households.


The Effect Of Public Health Expenditure On Infant Mortality: Evidence From A Panel Of Indian States, 1983-84 To 2011-12, Andrew Barenberg, Deepankar Basu, Ceren Soylu Jan 2015

The Effect Of Public Health Expenditure On Infant Mortality: Evidence From A Panel Of Indian States, 1983-84 To 2011-12, Andrew Barenberg, Deepankar Basu, Ceren Soylu

Economics Department Working Paper Series

Using a panel data set of Indian states between 1983-84 and 2011-12, this paper studies the impact of public health expenditure on the infant mortality rate (IMR), after controlling for other relevant covariates like per capita income, female literacy, and urbanization. We find that public expenditure on health care reduces IMR. Our baseline specification shows that an increase in public health expenditure by 1 percent of state-level GDP is associated with a reduction in the IMR by about 8 infant deaths per 1000 live births. We also find that female literacy and urbanization reduces the IMR.