This paper uses the initial roll out of the Neighborhood Health
Center program (NHC) under the War on Poverty to evaluate their
effects on mortality. We propose to use a unique dataset of grants
made by the Office of Economic Opportunity and information on
county level mortality generated from Vital Statistics data on the
universe of deaths from 1959-1988. This dataset allows us to use a
novel empirical strategy to control for a variety of potentially
confounding policies. Specific aim 1 estimates nationallyrepresentative,
causal estimates of the NHC program?s effects on
mortality. Specific aim 2 examines regional heterogeneity in NHCs
effects by race, age and cause of death.
