TY - JOUR
T1 - Unintended consequences of welfare reform
T2 - Evidence from birthweight of Aboriginal children in Australia
AU - Doyle, Mary Alice
AU - Schurer, Stefanie
AU - Silburn, Sven
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - In 2007, Australia introduced its most radical welfare reform in recent history, targeting Aboriginal communities with the aim of protecting children from harm. The ‘income management’ policy forced Aboriginal welfare recipients to spend at least half of their government transfers on essentials (e.g. food, housing), and less on non-essentials (e.g. alcohol, tobacco). By exploiting its staggered rollout, we estimate the impact of in utero exposure to the policy rollout on birthweight. We find that exposure to the income management policy reduced average birthweight robustly by 85 g and increased the risk of low birth weight by 3 percentage points. This finding is not explained by behavioral change (fertility, maternal risk behavior, access to care), or survival probabilities of at-risk fetuses. More likely, a lack of policy implementation planning and infrastructure led to acute income insecurity and stress during the rollout period, exacerbating the existing health inequalities it sought to address.
AB - In 2007, Australia introduced its most radical welfare reform in recent history, targeting Aboriginal communities with the aim of protecting children from harm. The ‘income management’ policy forced Aboriginal welfare recipients to spend at least half of their government transfers on essentials (e.g. food, housing), and less on non-essentials (e.g. alcohol, tobacco). By exploiting its staggered rollout, we estimate the impact of in utero exposure to the policy rollout on birthweight. We find that exposure to the income management policy reduced average birthweight robustly by 85 g and increased the risk of low birth weight by 3 percentage points. This finding is not explained by behavioral change (fertility, maternal risk behavior, access to care), or survival probabilities of at-risk fetuses. More likely, a lack of policy implementation planning and infrastructure led to acute income insecurity and stress during the rollout period, exacerbating the existing health inequalities it sought to address.
KW - Aboriginal children
KW - Birthweight
KW - Income management
KW - Unintended consequences
KW - Welfare reform
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129978124&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102618
DO - 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102618
M3 - Article
C2 - 35568007
AN - SCOPUS:85129978124
VL - 84
SP - 1
EP - 20
JO - Journal of Health Economics
JF - Journal of Health Economics
SN - 0167-6296
M1 - 102618
ER -