TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Lynch, John
AU  - Meunier, Aurélie
AU  - Pilkington, Rhiannon
AU  - Schurer, Stefanie
        TI  - Baby Bonuses and Early-Life Health Outcomes: Using Regression Discontinuity to Evaluate the Causal Impact of an Unconditional Cash Transfer
        PY  - 2019/Mar/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 12230
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp12230
        AB  - We use administrative data from South Australia to study the impact of an unconditional cash transfer on child health. We use the unanticipated introduction of the Australian Baby Bonus (ABB), a one-off payment of AU$3,000 (US$2,400) made to families with a newborn, to isolate its causal effect. The ABB reduces the number of potentially preventable hospitalizations and emergency department presentations for respiratory problems in the first year of life. Findings from survey data suggest that households spent the windfall income on electricity and private health insurance. There is no robust evidence that the ABB increased accidents or non-essential good consumption.
        KW  - unconditional cash transfers
KW  - baby bonus
KW  - child respiratory health
KW  - health care utilization
KW  - regression discontinuity design
KW  - natural experiment
KW  - linked administrative data
        ER  -