The paper investigates the effect of adequate use of prenatal care on birth weight in
Kenya. We estimate a multilevel model controlling for potential sample selection bias,
potential endogeneity of prenatal care, and potential unobserved heterogeneity. A
single–level model is also estimated, for comparison.
In estimating the models, we use data from the Kenya Demographic and Health
Survey of 2008–2009 together with additional administrative data. The results indicate
that adequate prenatal care increases birth weight, holding other factors constant.
We further observe that the single–level model overstates the effect of prenatal care
on birth weight by about 88g.