The Timing of Early Interventions and Child and Maternal Health

Abstract

What is the impact of timing of early-life investment policies on child and maternal health? Exploiting variation from a 2008 Danish nurse strike, we study this question in the context of universal nurse home visiting. We show that early but not later strike exposure increases child (and mother) general practitioner contacts in the first four years after childbirth. Mothers, who forgo an early nurse visit (rather than a later one), have a higher probability of mental health specialist contacts in the first two years after childbirth. We highlight two channels for these results, screening and information provision: We show that nurses perform well in identifying maternal mental health risks during early home visits in control years (likely preventing longer-term problems). Finally, we show that first-born children and children of parents without a health-related education drive our results. A stylized calculation confirms that short-run health benefits from early universal home visiting outweigh costs.