A large body of evidence documents the educational and labour market returns to birth weight, which are reflected in investments in large social safety net programmes targeting birth weight and early life health. However, there is no direct evidence on the private valuation of birth weight. In this paper, we estimate the willingness to pay for birth weight in the United States, using a series of discrete choice experiments. Within the normal birth weight range (2,500–4,000 g), we find that individuals are, on average, willing to pay $1.47 (95% CI: [$1.24, $1.70]) for each additional gram of birth weight when the value of birth weight is estimated linearly, or $2.40 (95% CI: [$2.03, $2.77]) when the value of birth weight is estimated non-parametrically.

中文翻译：

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关于出生体重的价值*

大量证据表明教育和劳动力市场恢复了出生体重，这反映在针对出生体重和早期生命健康的大型社会安全网计划的投资中。然而，没有关于出生体重的私人估价的直接证据。在本文中，我们使用一系列离散选择实验来估计美国为出生体重支付的意愿。在正常出生体重范围内（2,500–4,000 克），我们发现，当出生体重的价值增加时，人们平均愿意为每增加一克出生体重支付 1.47 美元（95% CI：[$1.24, $1.70]）是线性估计的，或当出生体重的值以非参数方式估计时为 2.40 美元（95% CI：[2.03 美元，2.77 美元]）。