The Impact of Medical Technologies on Child and Family Outcomes
Over the last few decades, most developed countries experienced an upsurge in medical expenditures. For example, health care expenditures in the United States increased from 5 percent of GDP in 1960 to over 16 percent in 2009 (OECD, 2012). Most of this medical cost growth is linked to changes in medical technologies and medical innovations (Newhouse, 1992). A recent report by the Institute of Medicine (2007) notes that “[b]etween 1993 and 2004, there was an 80% increase in the number of prescriptions received by Americans…[and] half or more of the growth in medical spending in recent years is attributable to change in technology.” The proposed session brings together three papers that examine the impact of different medical technologies pertaining to newborns and young children on health, human capital and family outcomes. The first paper examines the effects of OB/GYN supervision on the short-term health outcomes of newborns. The second paper investigates the impact of Cesarean sections on fertility. Finally, the third paper turns to the impact of pharmacological treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), one of the most common chronic mental health problems among young children, on children’s long-term human capital accumulation. The papers draw on different identification strategies using rich administrative data from three developed countries (The Netherlands, Austria, and Denmark). In addition, they are all inter-disciplinary in nature, emerging from the collaborative efforts of economists and researchers from other fields.