Inside the black box of welfare state expansion: Early-life health policies, parental investments ans socio-economic and health trajectories

Early-life policies have long-run impacts. While most research relates individuals'
outcomes to program availability, intention-to-treat analyses do not speak to the
effects at the intensive margin, the role of parental response, and the role of
providers. These factors are instrumental for policy makers today. Studying infant
nurse home visiting, this proposal asks: What are the causal effects of treatment
intensity (program components, the timing and provider of services) on adult
health, educational and labor market outcomes? We create linked individual-level
historical and administrative register data for all individuals of the 1959-1967
cohorts in Copenhagen. For identification, we exploit a trial randomly assigning
infants to higher program intensity, and variation across cohort*district and quasirandomly assigned nurses. Studying the 1960s, we contribute insights on the origins of contemporary socio-economic inequalities and the role of early-life
policies in explaining those.