A time-series analysis of unemployment and health. The case of birth outcomes in New York City.
The paper presents an aggregate time-series analysis of unemployment and infant health that improves on previous work in several ways. First, the data is monthly as opposed to annual. Second, the measure of health, the percentage of low-birthweight births, and the health inputs are race-specific. Third, because a pregnancy is limited to at most ten months, we can specify a lag length with a greater degree of confidence. We find no cyclical variation in the percentage of low-birthweight births. The results are insensitive to changes in lag length, health inputs, and functional form.