Social Welfare Expenditures and Infant Mortality

Abstract

This study examines the effects of social welfare expenditures on infant mortality (deaths younger than age 1 per 1,000 live births) across 19 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1980 to 2010. Data are obtained from various sources including the OECD, World Health Organization, and World Bank. The findings indicate that among three social welfare expenditure measures for families, the expenditures on family cash allowances are predicted to reduce infant mortality. However, the other two measures—the expenditures on parental and maternity leave and expenditures on family services—have no significant effects on infant mortality.

Keywords::

• Welfare expenditures
• infant mortality
• OECD
• cash allowances
• parental leave
• family services

The author sincerely thanks Dr. Sakiko Tanaka, Dr. Christopher Ruhm, and Dr. Jane Waldfogel for sharing their dataset for this article.

Notes

^1. See Van de Kaa (1987), Lesthaeghe (1995), and Wattenberg (2004) for more descriptions on social, economic, political, and demographic changes taken place in the modern era.

^2. These measures are based on the OECD Stat Extracts, which have three main categories of the welfare expenditures for families: (a) family cash allowances, (b) parental and maternity leave, and (c) family services.

^3. Health expenditures are incorporated in my article as one of the control variables.

^4. Although my article looks into the social welfare expenditures specifically allocated for families, Bradley et al. (2011) includes all social welfare expenditures—expenditures for families as well as on old age pensions, disability, and unemployment benefits, etc.