Surviving Childhood: Effects of Removing a Child From Home
利用瑞典法院数据，研究发现法院强制将儿童带离家庭会显著增加其死亡率，主要由安置期间的自杀导致，同时增加精神疾病住院和非毒品犯罪，对亲生父母健康影响不大。
Abstract This paper studies the effects of the court-ordered removal of children from home on health, crime, and education. To isolate causal effects, I exploit quasi-random variation in judge assignment together with across-judge variation in the tendency to favour removal in an instrumental variable design. Using a novel data set (N=26,579) based on Swedish court documents that I transcribe and link with detailed register data, I find that court-ordered out-of-home placement has large adverse effects on the mortality of the marginal child. These effects are primarily driven by suicides that occur while the removed child is still placed in out-of-home care. Removal also causes an increase in hospitalizations for mental illness and non-narcotic crimes. There is little evidence of adverse health effects for birth parents. I explore potential explanations for the detrimental effects on child health. Adverse care conditions and peer exposure appear to be important channels.