Accounting for the Rise in C-sections: Evidence from Population Level Data

NBER Working Paper No. 21022

Issued in March 2015, Revised in June 2019

NBER Program(s):Health Care, Labor Studies



Drawing on administrative records of nearly 4 million births in Canada as well as macro data from the US and Australia, we provide a comprehensive account of rising C-section rates. We explicitly consider the contributions of the changing characteristics of mothers, births, and physicians as well as changing financial incentives for C-section deliveries. These factors account for at most one-half of the increase in C-section rates. The majority of the remaining increase in C-sections over the period 1994-2011 occurred in the early 2000s. We overview the relative contributions that the Hannah Breech Trial and technological change may have played in this development.

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w21022

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