Work

Can Institutional Deliveries Reduce Newborn Mortality? Evidence from Rwanda

Year: 2015

Type: book

Abstract: Current global health policies emphasize institutional deliveries as a pathway to achieving reductions in newborn mortality in developing countries.There is however remarkably little evidence regarding a causal relationship between institutional deliveries and newborn mortality.In this paper we take advantage of a shock to institutional deliveries provided by the randomized rollout of a government performance-based financing (PBF) program in Rwanda, to provide the first estimates of this causal effect.Using a combination of difference-in-differences and regression discontinuity approaches, we find that program-induced increases in the rate of institutional delivery have not been successful in reducing the rate of newborn mortality.The findings suggest that attempts to increase institutional deliveries without addressing supply-side constraints are unlikely to result in the large reductions in mortality that policy makers expect.

Source: RAND Corporation eBooks

DOI: 10.7249/wr1072

Authors: Edward Okeke, Amalavoyal Chari

Institutions: RAND Corporation, University of Sussex

Language: English

Topic: Global Maternal and Child Health

Subfield: Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: National Institute on Aging