4/ The economic burden of ADHD is real but hard to pin down—spanning education, productivity, healthcare, and beyond. Measurement is complex, especially when accounting for spillovers.

3/ That matters: effects for marginally treated may not generalize. We suggest moving toward MTE frameworks to better handle heterogeneity.

2/ Evaluating treatment is even trickier. We highlight designs using administrative data + quasi-random variation in provider prescribing behavior. These deliver credible estimates—but only for marginal patients.

1/ Quasi-experimental evidence (sibling FE, genetic IVs) consistently shows ADHD reduces educational attainment and labor outcomes. The evidence base is growing—but so are the methodological challenges.

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4/ These results highlight the potential of unconditional financial incentives to reduce disparities in healthcare delivery and improve outcomes in underserved areas.

3/ Our findings align with the hypothesis that unconditional pay increases motivated community midwives to allocate more time and effort to prenatal care, improving maternal guidance and ensuring timely referrals for high-risk cases.

2/ Using a policy-induced discontinuity, we find that deprivation payments reduced geographical inequalities in birth outcomes, particularly in measures reflecting improved fetal growth, such as birth weight and birth weight centiles, among male infants.

1/ Can financial incentives reduce health inequalities?
We study deprivation payments—unconditional salary increases for community midwives caring for mothers in deprived areas—and their impact on reducing geographical inequalities in birth outcomes in the Netherlands.