ABSTRACT

Between 1997 and 2000, all states in the United States (US) enacted the State Children’s Health Insurance Programme (SCHIP) to provide publicly funded health insurance coverage for children in low-income families. However, only 15 states including the District of Columbia initially chose to provide coverage for children of newly arrived immigrants in their SCHIP. We exploit the resulting state and time variation in the implementation of the programme in a difference-in-differences framework to estimate the effect of a publicly funded children’s health insurance benefit on immigrant women’s fertility. While estimates from full samples show that the net effect of the programme was indistinguishable from zero, we find a significant positive effect on the fertility of unmarried immigrant women, both at the extensive and at the intensive margin. Our findings have important policy implications for societies experiencing a persistent decline in fertility.

摘要

1997 年至 2000 年间，美国 (US) 的所有州都制定了州儿童健康保险计划 (SCHIP)，为低收入家庭的儿童提供公共资助的健康保险。然而，只有包括哥伦比亚特区在内的 15 个州最初选择为其 SCHIP 中的新移民子女提供保险。我们在差异差异框架中利用项目实施过程中产生的状态和时间变化来估计公共资助的儿童健康保险福利对移民妇女生育能力的影响。虽然来自完整样本的估计表明，该计划的净效应与零无法区分，但我们发现，无论是在广泛的边际还是在密集的边际，都对未婚移民女性的生育率产生了显着的积极影响。