Essays on education,health and marriage.
详细信息
文摘
Chapter 1: Cognitive damage from iodine deficiency disorders IDD) has important implications for economic growth through its effect on human capital. To gauge the magnitude of this influence, we evaluate the impact on schooling of reductions in IDD from intensive iodine supplementation in Tanzania. Our findings suggest a large effect of in utero iodine on cognition and human capital: treated children attain an estimated 0.35-0.56 years of additional schooling relative to siblings and older and younger peers. Furthermore, the effect appears to be substantially larger for girls, consistent with laboratory evidence indicating greater cognitive sensitivity of female fetuses to maternal thyroid deprivation. Chapter 2: Premarital blood testing requirements indirectly benefited offspring at risk of inheriting the diseases tested. I use a state-year panel dataset combined with variation in the timing of state law repeals to analyze the impact of this reform on syphilis rates, premature birth rates and mortality rates. I find a moderate increase in adult syphilis rates and a significant increase in congenital syphilis rates. I also provide evidence of an increase in late fetal mortality and premature birth, both symptoms of congenital syphilis and the other diseases tested. Cost-benefit analysis of the effect on social welfare suggests that the savings from the averted premarital blood tests may not have justified the costs of the health consequences from repealing blood testing requirements. Chapter 3: Repealing premarital blood testing laws had the effect of lowering both pecuniary and non-pecuniary costs of marriage, and thus increasing the incentive to marry. I examine the robustness of prior estimates to the inclusion of time-varying covariates； a wider span of data to examine the effect in more states； as well as coding differences in the timing of repeal. Second, I use geographical data to provide evidence that a portion of the increase in repealing-state marriage rates was due to interstate substitution from non- testing states. However this amount is lower than estimated by previous research. Third, I explore the importance of changes in the non-pecuniary cost of marriage using the variation in testing requirements at the time of repeal.