This paper investigates the potential of maternal and infant health programs to improve the life expectancy of women and children. We study a program trialed 1931-33 in seven Swedish medical districts, assembling individual data from parish records and aggregate data from annual reports of...

This paper investigates the potential of an infant intervention to improve life expectancy, contributing to emerging interest in the early life origins of chronic disease. We analyse a pioneering program trialled in Sweden in the 1930s, which provided information, support and monitoring of...

This study examines the effects of a nationwide shock-responsive social cash transfer scheme during an aggregate shock, with a focus on highly risk susceptible informal sector households in Kenya. Leveraging primary in-person survey data in a doubly robust difference-in-differences framework, we...

This paper analyses the effects of hospital closures in Germany in the context of emergency medical care for patients with acute myocardial infarction or hemorrhagic stroke. Using a comprehensive inpatient care data, I evaluate the extent of the impact of hospital closures between 2006 and 2012...

This paper investigates the intergenerational transmission of health in the very long run. Using a unique purpose-built administrative dataset on individuals born in Sweden between 1930-34 and their parents, we study the intergenerational transmission (IGT) of health and the impact of previous...

The use of kerosene for lighting, cooking, and heating in developing countries is often considered a major health threat as it can cause accidents like thermal injuries, poisonings, fires or explosions. A number of hospital surveys emphasize this threat but evidence from household data is...

We evaluate a non-governmental housing microfinance intervention that attempts to improve housing conditions for low income populations by simultaneously offering them a labelled loan and non-financial technical support. Using household survey data from Kenya and Uganda, we first show evidence...

The lottery of birth draws some children into deprived environments and others into environments where they thrive. In a field experiment in rural India with 10-20 months old children we test two scalable interventions to reduce early disadvantages in health and mental development. We distribute...

Stock estimates' of missing women suggest that the problem is concentrated in South and East Asia and among young children. In contrast, `flow estimates' suggest that gender bias in mortality is much larger, is as severe among adults as it is among children in India and China, and is larger in...

This paper delivers empirical evidence on how informal transfers are affected by a formal and country-wide health insurance scheme. Using the fifth wave of the Ghanaian Living Standard Household Survey, we investigate the extent to which the exogenous implementation of the National Health...