The effects of a national policy to reduce c‐sections in Brazil
评估巴西一项禁止39周前选择性剖宫产并加强需求侧意识的国家政策，发现其使剖宫产率降低1.6个百分点，并轻微改善孕周、出生体重和Apgar评分，且效果主要由需求侧驱动。
In this paper, we assess the effects of a national policy implemented in Brazil to avoid unnecessary cesareans. The policy has a supply-side component that prohibits elective c-sections before the 39th gestational week and a demand-side awareness component. Since the policy is not binding for cases with a strong medical c-section indication, we use births of breech- and transverse-positioned babies as a counterfactual for births of cephalic-positioned babies in a difference-in-differences framework. Our results reveal that the policy decreases the rate of c-sections by 1.6 percentage point, and slightly increases gestational time, birthweight, and first-minute APGAR scores. There is evidence that policy effectiveness is driven by its demand-side component.