Inequality at birth
利用兄弟姐妹的出生体重和胎龄数据，结合潜变量方法，估计母亲行为对出生结果的影响、健康禀赋的方差、母亲行为与健康禀赋的协方差以及测量误差的方差，并分析不同政策对出生结果不平等的影响。
In this paper, we utilize data on birthweight and gestational age among siblings and maternal behaviors together with latent variable methods to estimate (i) the effects of maternal behaviors, including substance abuse, cigarette smoking, prenatal care, birth spacing and timing, and weight gain on the two birth outcomes, (ii) the variance in the health endowment common to the two measures and to siblings, (iii) the covariance between the maternal behaviors and health endowments, and (iv) the variance in measurement errors for each outcome. We use the estimates to examine the effects of different policies on inequality in birth outcomes.