This paper examines the shift in childbirth from home to hospital that occurred in the United States in the early twentieth century. Using a panel of city-level data over the period 1927-1940, we examine the shift of childbirth from home to hospital and analyze the impact of medical care on maternal mortality. Results suggest that increased operative intervention on the part of physicians and a resultant greater risk of infection increased maternal mortality prior to the introduction of sulfa drugs in 1937. However, the introduction of sulfa enabled doctors to reduce maternal mortality by enabling them to do potentially life-saving procedures (such as cesareans) without the risk of subsequent infection. Regressions estimated separately by race suggest that the impact of medical care on maternal mortality differed for blacks and whites. Relative to whites, hospitals posed a greater risk for black mothers prior to the availability of sulfa drugs in 1937, and were less beneficial for them afterwards, suggesting that blacks may have received lower quality medical care.

Problems with mortgage financing are widely considered to be a major cause of the recent financial meltdown. Several modern programs have been designed to mimic the Home Owners' Loan Corporation of the 1930s. The HOLC replaced the toxic assets on the balance sheets of financial institutions by buying troubled mortgages and then refinanced the mortgages to allow home owners to avoid losing their homes. We analyze the impact of the HOLC on the nonfarm rental and owned home markets after developing a new data set for over 2800 counties in the United States. In counties with fewer than 50,000 people, where financial markets were not as well developed as in larger cities, the HOLC's financial interventions helped stimulate the demand for owned housing more than it influenced the supply. In rental markets the HOLC appears to have contributed to an increase in the supply of rental housing that was likely associated the improvement of the balance sheets of lending institutions.

This paper examines the shift in childbirth from home to hospital that occurred in the United States in the early twentieth century. Using a panel of city-level data over the period 1927-1940, we examine the shift of childbirth from home to hospital and analyze the impact of medical care on maternal mortality. Results suggest that increased operative intervention on the part of physicians and a resultant greater risk of infection increased maternal mortality prior to the introduction of sulfa drugs in 1937. However, the introduction of sulfa enabled doctors to reduce maternal mortality by enabling them to do potentially life-saving procedures (such as cesareans) without the risk of subsequent infection. Regressions estimated separately by race suggest that the impact of medical care on maternal mortality differed for blacks and whites. Relative to whites, hospitals posed a greater risk for black mothers prior to the availability of sulfa drugs in 1937, and were less beneficial for them afterwards, suggesting that blacks may have received lower quality medical care.

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