Does Welfare Reduce Mortality? Evidence from the Supplemental Security Income Program

In this thesis, I analyze whether transfer payments from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program result in a reduction in infant mortality or homicide rates in U.S. counties. SSI is a government program that provides payments to low-income people who are either aged (65 or older), blind, or disabled. In 1990, in it’s Sullivan v. Zebley decision, the Supreme Court relaxed medical eligibility criteria for children on SSI.
This resulted in a dramatic rise in child enrollment rates and a large influx of income
into some of the poorest areas in the U.S. I use an instrumental variable strategy,
exploiting geographical variation in the expected treatment effect of this federal policy change, to determine whether this increase in child SSI enrollment had a causal impact on infant mortality or homicide rates. I find that a 1 percentage point increase in child SSI enrollment leads to a 1.45 percentage point reduction in infant mortality rates and an insignificant change in homicide rates.