Higher Infant Mortality in the US

 WHY IS INFANT MORTALITY HIGHER IN THE US THAN IN EUROPE? 

Alice Chen Emily Oster Heidi Williams 

Working Paper 20525    http://www.nber.org/papers/w20525 

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 September 2014

My Summary:

Comparison of infant mortality for the US, Austria, and Finland

1.  Neonatal

If the sample is separated into low weight/ very, very premature babies and normal weight babies, then the neonatal (within one month of delivery) infant mortality rate for the US is as good or better than the other countries.

But a larger fraction of infants in the US are low weight/premature and their mortality rate for these babies is higher for all three countries.  So the overall US mortality rate is higher.  

2.  Postnatal

Now separate the sample into "advantaged" and not advantaged but not including low birth weight, very, very premature or multiple births)  In the US, advantaged is defined as  college educated, married, white or Asian non immigrant (nonimmigrant for Austria). 

The advantaged do at least as well in the US as in Austria and Finland. 

But the disadvantaged (excluding low birth weight , very, very premature babies, and multiple births) in the US have higher infant mortality in all months 1 through 12 than other countries.  Some is from more accidents and deliberate harm.  

3.  There are also differences across regions of the US -- much more for postnatal than neonatal.  North east has lowest rate and Pacific the highes.