Research Seminar: The Federal Effort to Desegregate Southern Hospitals and the Black-White Infant Mortality Gap.

• Wed, January 27th, 2021, 15:00 h
• Speaker: Daniel I Rees (University Colorado & NBER)
• Title: The Federal Effort to Desegregate Southern Hospitals and the Black-White Infant Mortality Gap.
• Invited by: M. Sartarelli  (ICAE-UCM)

Abstract: In 1966, Southern hospitals were barred from participating in the Medicare program unless they discontinued their long-standing practice of racial segregation. Using data from five Deep South states and exploiting county-level variation in Medicare certification dates, we find that gaining access to an ostensibly integrated hospital had no effect on the Black-White infant mortality gap, although it may have discouraged small numbers of Black mothers from giving birth at home attended by a midwife. These results are consistent with descriptions of the federal hospital desegregation campaign as producing only cosmetic changes and illustrate the limits of anti-discrimination policies imposed upon reluctant actors.

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