I am a Marie Curie Global Fellow. My project started in September 2023. For this project, I investigate the health investments to and outcomes of children of disadvantaged families in countries with universal health coverage.
On this page, you can find the abstracts of the working papers presenting some of the research outcomes.
The Impact of Minimum Wage Increases on Infant Health: Evidence from Turkey's 2016 Wage Hike-- with Pinar Karaca-Mandic
This paper examines the impact of a significant minimum wage increase in Türkiye on infant birth weight and neonatal health. We utilize data from the Türkiye Demographic and Health Survey to investigate the birth outcomes of babies exposed to a 30% minimum wage hike during pregnancy. Leveraging variation in the predicted probability that a household includes a minimum-wage earner, we estimate a difference-in-differences model to identify the causal effect of prenatal exposure to the minimum wage increase. Our analysis reveals that exposure to a higher minimum wage during pregnancy significantly increases birth weight and reduces the likelihood of low birth weight (< 2500 grams). We find no difference in the gestational length or the possibility of receiving prenatal health care, employment status, or smoking behavior for mothers who face an increase in the minimum wage while pregnant. However, mothers exposed to the reform were more likely to receive key prenatal health assessments—such as blood-sample tests and abdominal examination—which may have contributed to the observed improvements in neonatal health.
The Working Paper can be found here.
How Does Public Assistance Affect Children in Disadvantaged Families? Evidence from Türkiye’s Family Support Program --We examine the short-term effects of Türkiye’s Family Support Program (FSP), a large-scale unconditional cash transfer (UCT) introduced in 2022 amid 85.5% annual inflation. The program complements food and shelter support and offers approximately one-third of the monthly minimum wage to low-income families. Using a regression discontinuity design based on the program's per capita income eligibility threshold, we analyze the program's short-term effects on child labor, time use, health, and emotional well-being within six months of implementation. We find significant reductions in children's participation in family businesses and agricultural work. Investigating the heterogeneous effects, we find that the program reduces non-market outside work for boys and time spent on domestic work for girls. Emotional well-being improved, especially among boys. These findings suggest that UCTs can improve child welfare during macroeconomic crises when combined with in-kind transfers.
The Working Paper can be found here.
The Health Impact of Family Size: Evidence from the Turkey Health Survey--This paper examines the impact of household size on children's health outcomes. Using data from the Turkey Health Survey, we analyze how the number of children in a household influences both the physical health of the children and the likelihood of reporting untreated health issues. To address the endogeneity in maternal fertility behavior, we use the sex composition of the first two children as an instrumental variable (IV). Following Angrist and Evans (1996), we assume that if the first two children are of the same sex, the probability of having a third child increases as parents seek a balanced gender composition. Our findings indicate that children from larger families do not show a significantly different likelihood of reporting health issues. Additionally, larger families do not exhibit significant differences in seeking medical treatment for their children’s health needs.
[1] Angrist, J., & Evans, W. N. (1996). Children and their parents' labor supply: Evidence from exogenous variation in family size.