TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Anderson, D. Mark
AU  - Charles, Kerwin Kofi
AU  - Rees, Daniel I.
        TI  - The Federal Effort to Desegregate Southern Hospitals and the Black-White Infant Mortality Gap
        PY  - 2020/Dec/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 13920
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp13920
        AB  - In 1966, Southern hospitals were barred from participating in Medicare unless they discontinued their long-standing practice of racial segregation. Using data from five Deep South states and exploiting county-level variation in Medicare certification dates, we find that gaining access to an ostensibly integrated hospital had no effect on the Black-White infant mortality gap, although it may have discouraged small numbers of Black mothers from giving birth at home attended by a midwife. These results are consistent with descriptions of the federal hospital desegregation campaign as producing only cosmetic changes and illustrate the limits of anti-discrimination policies imposed upon reluctant actors.
        KW  - hospital desegregation
KW  - black infant mortality
KW  - Medicare
KW  - civil rights
        ER  -