Does Debt Relief Improve Child Health? : Evidence from Cross-Country Micro Data
This paper analyzes the effects of a multilateral debt relief program on child health. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank launched the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative in the late 1990s to reduce the debt burdens of poor c...
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/10/26884745/debt-relief-improve-child-health-evidence-cross-country-micro-data http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25316 |
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okr-10986-253162021-04-23T14:04:29Z Does Debt Relief Improve Child Health? : Evidence from Cross-Country Micro Data Welander, Anna debt relief Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries HIPC Initiative child health health surveys demographic surveys infant mortality This paper analyzes the effects of a multilateral debt relief program on child health. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank launched the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative in the late 1990s to reduce the debt burdens of poor countries, and explicitly linked the initiative to the aim of poverty reduction and social targets. As a result, debt-servicing costs have gone down by an average 1.8 percentage points of gross domestic product in Heavily Indebted Poor Countries. However, the social effects of debt relief are not well known. The paper employs micro data on infant mortality from 56 country-specific Demographic and Health Surveys to investigate the effects of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative on child health. The retrospective fertility structure of the data allows for analysis using the within-mother variation in the probability of survival of babies before and after different stages of the initiative. The results suggest that after a debt-ridden country enters the program, which is conditional on reform and pro-development policies, and receives interim debt relief, the probability of infant mortality goes down by about 0.5 percentage point. This translates into about 3,000 fewer infant deaths in an average Heavily Indebted Poor Country. The findings are particularly strong for infants born to poor mothers and mothers living in rural areas, and are driven by access to vaccines early in life and during pregnancy. There are no child health effects from graduating from the program and receiving full debt relief. 2016-11-01T19:35:05Z 2016-11-01T19:35:05Z 2016-10 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/10/26884745/debt-relief-improve-child-health-evidence-cross-country-micro-data http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25316 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7872 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
debt relief Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries HIPC Initiative child health health surveys demographic surveys infant mortality |
| spellingShingle |
debt relief Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries HIPC Initiative child health health surveys demographic surveys infant mortality Welander, Anna Does Debt Relief Improve Child Health? : Evidence from Cross-Country Micro Data |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7872 |
| description |
This paper analyzes the effects of a
multilateral debt relief program on child health. The
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank launched the
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative in the late 1990s
to reduce the debt burdens of poor countries, and explicitly
linked the initiative to the aim of poverty reduction and
social targets. As a result, debt-servicing costs have gone
down by an average 1.8 percentage points of gross domestic
product in Heavily Indebted Poor Countries. However, the
social effects of debt relief are not well known. The paper
employs micro data on infant mortality from 56
country-specific Demographic and Health Surveys to
investigate the effects of the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries Initiative on child health. The retrospective
fertility structure of the data allows for analysis using
the within-mother variation in the probability of survival
of babies before and after different stages of the
initiative. The results suggest that after a debt-ridden
country enters the program, which is conditional on reform
and pro-development policies, and receives interim debt
relief, the probability of infant mortality goes down by
about 0.5 percentage point. This translates into about 3,000
fewer infant deaths in an average Heavily Indebted Poor
Country. The findings are particularly strong for infants
born to poor mothers and mothers living in rural areas, and
are driven by access to vaccines early in life and during
pregnancy. There are no child health effects from graduating
from the program and receiving full debt relief. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Welander, Anna |
| author_facet |
Welander, Anna |
| author_sort |
Welander, Anna |
| title |
Does Debt Relief Improve Child Health? : Evidence from Cross-Country Micro Data |
| title_short |
Does Debt Relief Improve Child Health? : Evidence from Cross-Country Micro Data |
| title_full |
Does Debt Relief Improve Child Health? : Evidence from Cross-Country Micro Data |
| title_fullStr |
Does Debt Relief Improve Child Health? : Evidence from Cross-Country Micro Data |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Does Debt Relief Improve Child Health? : Evidence from Cross-Country Micro Data |
| title_sort |
does debt relief improve child health? : evidence from cross-country micro data |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2016 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/10/26884745/debt-relief-improve-child-health-evidence-cross-country-micro-data http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25316 |
| _version_ |
1764458944446595072 |