ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF MATERNAL ILLNESS IN RURAL BANGLADESH
利用孟加拉国农村地区产妇医疗记录和家庭消费面板数据，发现孕产妇疾病导致家庭资源大幅减少（几乎全部用于医疗支出），但家庭通过非正式信贷能完全平滑消费，短期不受影响。
We use panel data on household consumption combined with information taken from the medical records of women who gave birth in health facilities to explore the economic consequences of maternal ill health, in the context of a rural population in Bangladesh. The findings suggest that there is a large reduction in household resources associated with maternal illness, driven almost entirely by spending on health care. In spite of this loss of resources, we find that households are able to fully insure consumption against maternal ill health, although confidence intervals are unable to rule out a small effect. Households in our study area are shown to have good access to informal credit (whether it be from local money lenders or family relatives), and this appears critical in helping to smooth consumption in response to these health shocks, at least in the short term.