This study examines the effects of public social welfare expenditures on infant mortality (the number of deaths of children aged less than 1 year per 1000 live births) across 19 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This research contributes to the existing literature (e.g., Bradley et al, 2011) by incorporating more years from 1980 to 2010 and looking into three specific dimensions of social expenditures for families – expenditures on (1) cash allowances; (2) family services; and (3) maternity and parental leave. I also use data from various sources including the OECD, World Health Organization, International Labour Organization, and World Bank. Additional data come from the United States Social Security Administration, International Social Security Association, and other government sources.

I estimate the effects of public social welfare expenditures – all three types of expenditures on cash allowances, family services, and maternity and parental leave – on infant mortality using Ordinary Least Squares models. I test the effects of individual expenditures as well as all three measures simultaneously. All of my expenditure measures have been purchasing power parity (PPP)-adjusted in the US dollars and defined by expenditures per child. The expenditures on cash allowances and the expenditures on family services are divided by the number of children ages 0-14; further, the public expenditures on maternity and parental leave are divided by the number of children ages 0-4. I control for relevant variables including real GDP per capita in thousands of PPP-adjusted in the US dollars, the total expenditures on health care as a percentage of GDP, the share of the population covered by health insurance (public and primary private), the number of kidney dialysis patients per 100,000 population, the total fertility rate of 15–44 year old women, the female employment-to-population ratios, the prevalence of low birth weight, and the immunization rate for Diphtheria, Pertussis, and Tetanus. I also include in all models: country fixed effects; year fixed effects; and country-time trend interactions.

The results indicate that among three types of public social welfare expenditures for families, two expenditure measures – expenditures on maternity and parental leave as well as family services – have no significant effects on infant mortality. However, family cash allowances significantly reduce infant mortality; the effects are robust throughout all model specifications.

This suggests that parents respond more directly to cash allowances and benefits than any other forms of services – whether they are in a form of maternity and parental leave or other family and child-related services. While overall social service expenditures are known to have positive influences on child welfare, this research examines the effects of social welfare expenditures, both individually and collectively, over a longer period of time based on data from various international organizations. The concluding section further discusses how these findings compare to previous research and explores future research and policy implications.