Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Chia-Lin Chang
Author-Email: changchialin@nchu.edu.tw
Author-Person: pch286 
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Applied Economics, Department of Finance, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan.
Author-Name: Wei-Chen Chen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Applied Economics National Chung Hsing University.

Author-Name: Michael McAleer
Author-Person: pmc90 
Author-Workplace-Name: Econometric Institute, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Tinbergen Institute,
	The Netherlands, Department of Quantitative Economics, Complutense University of Madrid, and Institute of Economic 
	Research, Kyoto University. 
Title: Survival Analysis of Very Low Birth Weight Infant Mortality in Taiwan 
Abstract: This paper examines the determinants of very low birth weight infant (or neonatal) mortality using the Taiwan National Health 
	Insurance Research database from 1997 to 2009. After infants are discharged from hospital, it is not possible to track their 
	mortality, so the Cox proportional hazard model is used to analyze the very low birth weight infant mortality rate. In order to 
	clarify treatment responsibility and to avoid selective referral effects, we use the number of infants treated in the preceding 
	five years to observe the effect of a physician’s and hospital’s medical experience on the mortality rate of hospitalized 
	minimal birth weight infants. The empirical results show that, given disease control variables, a higher infant weight, higher 
	quality hospitals, increased hospital medical experience, and higher investment in pediatrics can reduce the mortality rate 
	significantly. However, an increased physician’s medical experience does not seem to influence significantly the very low birth 
	weight infant mortality rate. 


Classification-JEL: n C41, I10, I13, I18.

Keywords: Very low birth weight, Neonatal mortality, Physician’s infant experience, Hospital infant 
	experience, Statistical analysis, Cox proportional hazard model, Selective referral, Taiwan 
 National Health Insurance Scheme.

Note: The authors wish to thank the Taiwan National Health Research Institutes for providing the data, and the National Science 
	Council, Taiwan for financial support. The third author also wishes to acknowledge the Australian Research Council for 
	financial support. 
	Corresponding author: changchialin@nchu.edu.tw Tel: +886 (04)22840350 ext 309; Fax: +886(04)22860255.

Length: 36 pages
Creation-Date: 2014-06  
Number: 2014-21 
X-File-Ref: http://america.sim.ucm.es/repec/ucm/ref/doicae1421.txt
File-URL: https://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/26306/1/1421.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:ucm:doicae:1421