  We propose a causal analysis of the mother's educational level on the health
status of the newborn, in terms of gestational weeks and weight. The analysis
is based on a finite mixture structural equation model, the parameters of which
have a causal interpretation. The model is applied to a dataset of almost ten
thousand deliveries collected in an Italian region. The analysis confirms that
standard regression overestimates the impact of education on the child health.
With respect to the current economic literature, our findings indicate that
only high education has positive consequences on child health, implying that
policy efforts in education should have benefits for welfare.
