A causal analysis of mother's education on birth inequalities

TL;DR

This paper uses a causal structural equation model to analyze how maternal education affects newborn health, revealing that only high education levels positively impact birth outcomes, which has implications for policy.

Contribution

It introduces a finite mixture structural equation model for causal analysis of maternal education's effect on birth health, highlighting the importance of high education levels.

Findings

Standard regression overestimates education impact

Only high maternal education benefits child health

Policy should focus on increasing high education levels

Abstract

We propose a causal analysis of the mother's educational level on the health status of the newborn, in terms of gestational weeks and weight. The analysis is based on a finite mixture structural equation model, the parameters of which have a causal interpretation. The model is applied to a dataset of almost ten thousand deliveries collected in an Italian region. The analysis confirms that standard regression overestimates the impact of education on the child health. With respect to the current economic literature, our findings indicate that only high education has positive consequences on child health, implying that policy efforts in education should have benefits for welfare.