ArticleThe quarterly journal of economics2010
ESTIMATING MARGINAL RETURNS TO MEDICAL CARE: EVIDENCE FROM AT-RISK NEWBORNS.
Article in The quarterly journal of economics, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed.
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- The unexpected costs of expertise: evidence from highly specialized physicians.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
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- Association of a State Prescribing Limits Policy with Opioid Prescribing and Long-term Use: an Interrupted Time Series Analysis.Journal of general internal medicine · 2023Article
- Who Works Less When a Parent Needs Long-Term Care? Gender Disparities in Labor Market Effects in Mexico.Journal of long-term care · 2022Article
- Introduction to Regression Discontinuity Design.Annals of clinical epidemiology · 2022Article
- Difference in Hospital Utilization Within the First 12 Months Among Low-Birth-Weight Infants in Medicaid Managed Care Versus Fee-for-Service: A Regression Discontinuity Study.Maternal and child health journal · 2021Article
- Problems with Using Polygenic Scores to Select Embryos.The New England journal of medicine · 2021Article
- Data Resource Profile: Xiamen registry of pregnant women and offspring (REPRESENT): a population-based, long-term follow-up database linking four major healthcare data platforms.International journal of epidemiology · 2021Article
- Can policy affect initiation of addictive substance use? Evidence from opioid prescribing.Journal of health economics · 2021Article
- Introduction to clinical research based on modern epidemiology.Clinical and experimental nephrology · 2020Review
- Methods for Evaluating Causality in Observational Studies.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2020Article
- The impact of voluntary and nonpayment policies in reducing early-term elective deliveries among privately insured and Medicaid enrollees.Health services research · 2020Article
- Does Medicare Coverage Improve Cancer Detection and Mortality Outcomes?Journal of policy analysis and management : [the journal of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management] · 2020Article
- Within study comparisons and risk of bias in international development: Systematic review and critical appraisal.Campbell systematic reviews · 2019Article
- Does the Use of Diagnostic Technology Reduce Fetal Mortality?Health services research · 2018Article
- Antiretroviral Therapy and Mortality in Rural South Africa: A Comparison of Causal Modeling Approaches.American journal of epidemiology · 2018Article
- The impact of long-term care on quality of life.Health economics · 2018Observational
- Treatment eligibility and retention in clinical HIV care: A regression discontinuity study in South Africa.PLoS medicine · 2017Article
- Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States Than in Europe?American economic journal. Economic policy · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
A key policy question is whether the benefits of additional medical expenditures exceed their costs. We propose a new approach for estimating marginal returns to medical spending based on variation in medical inputs generated by diagnostic thresholds. Specifically, we combine regression discontinuity estimates that compare health outcomes and medical treatment provision for newborns on either side of the very low birth weight threshold at 1500 grams. First, using data on the census of US births in available years from 1983-2002, we find that newborns with birth weights just below 1500 grams have lower one-year mortality rates than do newborns with birth weights just above this cutoff, even though mortality risk tends to decrease with birth weight. One-year mortality falls by approximately one percentage point as birth weight crosses 1500 grams from above, which is large relative to mean infant mortality of 5.5% just above 1500 grams. Second, using hospital discharge records for births in five states in available years from 1991-2006, we find that newborns with birth weights just below 1500 grams have discontinuously higher charges and frequencies of specific medical inputs. Hospital costs increase by approximately $4,000 as birth weight crosses 1500 grams from above, relative to mean hospital costs of $40,000 just above 1500 grams. Under an assumption that observed medical spending fully captures the impact of the "very low birth weight" designation on mortality, our estimates suggest that the cost of saving a statistical life of a newborn with birth weight near 1500 grams is on the order of $550,000 in 2006 dollars.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.