Description:

Title: "Drivers of Racial Differences in C-Sections"

By Molly Schnell, Assistant Professor of Economics and IPR Fellow.

Abstract: Black mothers who arrive for unscheduled deliveries are 25% more likely to deliver by C-section than non-Hispanic White mothers. What explains this gap? In this talk, Schnell will demonstrate that the disparity is highest among the lowest-risk mothers and falls by only four percentage points after adjusting for observed medical risk factors, sociodemographic characteristics, and fixed effects for the hospital and delivering clinician. Remarkably, the gap disappears when an unscheduled delivery coincides with a scheduled C-section, raising the cost of performing another surgery. Schnell argues that this pattern points to provider discretion—rather than unobserved medical need—as the source of persistent racial differences in delivery method. She will also show that the extra C-sections performed on low-risk women when hospitals face no capacity constraints harm both maternal and infant health.

This event is part of the Fay Lomax Cook Spring 2025 Colloquium Series, where our researchers from around the University share their latest policy-relevant research.

Please note all colloquia this quarter will be held in-person only.