Atheendar S. Venkataramani, University of Pennsylvania
| When |
Apr 11, 2022
from 12:00 PM to 01:00 PM |
|---|---|
| Where | Online via Zoom |
| Contact Name | Jennifer Doiron |
| Contact Phone | 301-405-6403 |
| Add event to calendar |
 vCal iCal
|
About the Presentation
Millions of women continue to die during and soon after childbirth, even where the knowledge and resources to avoid this are available. We posit that raising the share of women in parliament can trigger action. Leveraging the timing of gender quota legislation across developing countries, we identify sharp sustained reductions of 8–10 percent in maternal mortality. Investigating mechanisms, we find that gender quotas lead to increases in percentage points of 5–8 in skilled birth attendance and 4–8 in prenatal care utilization, alongside a decline in fertility of 6–7 percent and an increase in the schooling of young women of about 0.5 years. The results are robust to numerous robustness checks. They suggest a new policy tool for tackling maternal mortality.
About the Speaker
Atheendar Venkataramani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy and a staff physician at the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Dr. Venkataramani is a health economist who studies the life-course origins of health and socioeconomic inequality. He researches the relationship between economic opportunities and health behaviors and outcomes; how early life interventions shape well-being over the life course; and how social policies can have spillover impacts on health outcomes.
Location: Online via Zoom. Zoom Registration Link here. Upon registration you will receive an automatically generated email with the direct link for the seminar.
MPRC public events for Spring 2022 will be a mix of in person and online via Zoom. For in person events, all event attendees must follow current protocols