Cecilia Díaz Campo es Profesora e Investigadora en Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis. Tiene un PhD en Economía por University of Western Ontario y realizó sus estudios de grado en la Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Ha dictado cursos de grado y posgrado en ambas universidades y también ha sido consultora del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo. Sus investigaciones se centran en temas de Organización Industrial y Economía de la Salud. 

Abstract: This paper estimates the causal impact of a maternity conditional cash transfer program on the choice between abortion and childbirth in a context where abortion is illegal. We leverage several sources of social security administrative micro-data matched to longitudinal hospital records to estimate the effect of participating in the Argentinean “Asignación por Embarazo para Protección Social”, a conditional cash transfer program implemented in 2011 and targeted to pregnant women who are unemployed or working in the informal sector. We exploit the substantial amount of inflation in Argentina to instrument for the endogenous participation in the program. We estimate that participation in the program led to a sizable reduction in the probability of abortion and in the incidence of normal birthweight (i.e., greater than 2,500 grams). Our findings are consistent with a change in composition effect, in which mothers whose abortion decision is affected have a higher risk of low birthweight children.

Autores: Cecilia Díaz Campo (Washington University in St. Louis) & Timothy Conley (University of Western Ontario)

Organizan: Departamento de Economía, Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Revista Económica

Contacto: iie@econo.unlp.edu.ar