讲座主题：Building Health Care Capacity: Evidence from a Nationwide Midwifery Training Program

主讲嘉宾：徐化愚 助理教授

工作单位：北京大学国家发展研究院和南南学院

讲座时间：2025年5月23日（星期五） 9:00-12:00

地  点：经济学院405会议室

主办单位：华中科技大学经济学院 华中科技大学创新发展研究中心

摘要：We study the short- and long-run impacts of China’s New Midwifery Campaign (NMC), a large-scale public health initiative launched in the 1950s to improve childbirth practices by training traditional birth attendants. Leveraging newly digitized archival data and substantial variation in the timing of campaign rollout across counties, we find that the NMC reduced neonatal mortality by approximately 30 per 1,000 births, a 46% decline relative to the sample mean. Effects were larger among more vulnerable populations, including male births, multiple births, high-parity deliveries, and regions with limited health care resources. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that nationwide implementation of the campaign saved roughly 635,000 neonatal lives annually. This mortality reduction contributed to population growth, leading to a 3.8% increase in birth cohort size. We find no significant long-run impacts on the education, health, or employment of surviving children. However, mothers exposed to the campaign at first birth experienced lasting improvements in health and labor market participation. These findings demonstrate that training informal providers in essential medical practices can serve as a practical and effective stopgap strategy for improving population health in resource-constrained settings.

嘉宾介绍：徐化愚，北京大学国家发展研究院和南南学院助理教授。研究领域为发展经济学和人事管理经济学。研究受国家自然科学基金、Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), William T. Grant Foundation等国内外知名学术机构的资助，研究成果发表于American Economic Journal: Applied Economics、Journal of Public Economics、Journal of Development Economics、Journal of Comparative Economics、《经济学季刊》等国内外一流学术期刊。曾获北京大学“教学优秀奖”、“优秀德育奖”、“中国工商银行奖教金-经济学优秀学者奖”、本科生科研优秀指导教师称号。