School Health Programs: Education, Health, and Welfare Dependency of Young Adults

Signe Abrahamsen (), Rita Ginja and Julie Riise ()
Additional contact information
Signe Abrahamsen: University of Bergen
Julie Riise: University of Bergen

No 2021-044, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: This paper provides new evidence that preventive health care services delivered at schools and provided at a relatively low cost have positive and lasting impacts. We use variation from a 1999-reform in Norway that induced substantial differences in the availability of health professionals across municipalities and cohorts. In municipalities with one fewer school nurse per 1,000 school-age children before the reform there was an increase in the availability of nurses of 35% from the pre- to the post-reform period, attributed to the policy change. The reform reduced teenage pregnancies and increased college attendance for girls. It also reduced the take-up of welfare benefits by ages 26 and 30 and increased the planned use of primary and specialist health care services at ages 25-35, without impacts on emergency room admissions. The reform also improved the health of newborns of affected new mothers and reduced the likelihood of miscarriages.

Keywords: school health services; teenage pregnancy; welfare dependence; utilization of health services; health status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H75 I10 I12 I28 I30 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hea, nep-isf and nep-ure
Note: ECI, M
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Abraha ... -health-programs.pdf First version, September 2, 2021 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: School Health Programs: Education, Health and Welfare Dependency of Young Adults (2021)
Working Paper: School health programs: education, health, and welfare dependency of young adults (2021)
Working Paper: School Health Programs: Education, Health, and Welfare Dependency of Young Adults (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hka:wpaper:2021-044

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